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RY  FACIL 

=—^ 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


PRISON    DISCIPLINE 


AMERICA- 


BV 


FRANCIS    C.   GRAY 


*• 


PRISON    DISCIPLINE 


AMERICA. 


FRANCIS    C.     GRAY 


BOSTON: 

CHARLES   C.  LITTLE   AND  JAMES   BROWN. 


MDCCCXLVII. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1847, 

By  Francis  C.  Gray, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


boston: 

printed   by  freeman  and  bolles, 
devonshire  street. 


"mil 


ADVERTISEMENT 


The  statements  in  the  text,  for  which  no  other  au- 
thority is  cited,  are  founded,  so  far  as  relates  to  the 
Eastern  Penitentiary  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  printed 
reports  of  the  officers  of  that  institution ;  as  to  the 
prison  at  Charlestown,  on  the  like  reports,  on  the  re- 
cords of  the  prison,  on  communications  from  the  warden 
and  the  chaplain,  and  on  personal  ohservation;  as  to 
prisons  in  Great  Britain,  on  official  reports  and  parlia- 
mentary documents,  especially  on  the  evidence  taken 
before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  last  spring. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  to  assert  that  there  are 
no  mistakes  in  this  pamphlet.  But  it  is  enough  for  my 
purpose,  if  there  are  none,  which  affect  materially  its 
arguments  or  its  conclusions. 

F.    C.    GRAY. 
Boston,  November  10,  1847. 

*_*  •a-f  ."V*  -_i.  -■%,  ■^ 


CORRECTIONS. 

Page  56.  Near  the  hottom,  for  "  the  scheme  was  put  in  operation,  but  abandoned 
after  a  few  years  trial,"  read  "  an  attempt  was  made  to  put  this  scheme  in  operation, 
but  it  was  soon  abandoned." 

Page  97.  Note.  The  Census  of  1S45  is  more  correct  and  makes  the  black 
population  of  Boston  appear  to  be  1.61  per  cent.  See  Shaftuck's  Census  of  Boston, 
p    41. 

Page  112.  Seventh  line  from  the  bottom,  before  "  Philadelphia"  insert  "  prison 
at." 

Page  130.    Third  line  from  the  bottom,  for  "  latter  "  read  "  former." 

Page  164.  Eighth  line  from  the  bottom,  for  "pass  an  hour  every  day  in,"  read, 
"  walk  every  day  to." 


CONTENTS 


State  of  the  question,            ......  1 

Experiments  and  progress  of  opinion  in  America,       .         .  Cl5    '/ 

The  State  Prison  in  Charlestown,            ....  47 

Discharged  Convicts,         .         ,         .         .         .         .         ,  55  ■ 

Model  prisons  of  the  two  systems,           .         .         .         .  61 

Solitude  and  society,         .......  ,  68  V 

Industrious  habits  and  skill,             .....  71  "^ 

Comparative  earnings,                ......  77 

Bodily  and  mental  health,                .....  ,  8p 

Number  of  deaths,             .......  94 

Number  of  cases  of  insanity,          .         .         .         .         .  100 

Experience  of  New  Jersey,  .         .         .         .         .114 

Experience  of  Rhode  Island,          .....  121 

Amount  of  society  provided  for  convicts,            ...  123 

Opinions  in  Europe,      .......  131 

Poland, 135 

France, 139 

England,  Millbank, 153 

"        Pentonville, 163 

"        Parkhurst,                  172 

Scotland,  Perth, 173 

County  Jails,            ........  175 

New  Scheme  of  British  Government,               .         .         .  177 
Results,  as  to  American  Prisons,                 .         .         .         .181 

Appendix,     .........  185 


PRISON   DISCIPLINE    IN   AMERICA. 


The  extensive  and  systematic  inquiries  and  experi- 
ments, which  have  been  made  in  this  country  during 
sixty  years  past,  in  relation  to  Prison  Discipline,  have 
given  to  our  accumulated  knowledge  on  this  subject 
almost  the  character  of  a  science.  Many  general  con- 
clusions in  it  are  established,  and  many  questions,  once 
the  occasions  of  violent  controversy,  are  now  determin- 
ed in  a  manner,  which  conunands  universal  assent. 
That  stinted  food,  constant  confinement,  total  privation 
of  social  intercourse  should  form  no  part  of  any  system ; 
that  all  systems  should  provide -for  entire  separation  at 
night,  and  for  vigorous  exercise  and  useful  labor,  in- 
stead of  the  fatiguing  and  unprofitable  toil  of  the  tread- 
mill, by  day ;  and  that  no  more  nor  greater  punish- 
ments should  be  inflicted  than  are  requisite  for  the 
attainment  of  these  objects  and  for  the  preservation  of 
order ;  these,  and  other  propositions  once  doubted  or 
even  strenuously  denied,  are  now  admitted  by  all. 


6 


One  of  the  most  important  questions,  "which  remains 
to  be  decided,  and  one  which  has  recently  excited  great 
zeal  and  interest  here  and  in  Europe,  is  this  :  Whether 
the  daily  labor  of  prisoners  should  be  carried  on  in 
workshops  containing  several  in  company  under  con- 
stant supervision  ;  or  by  each  alone  in  entire  solitude ; 
and  it  is  now  proposed  to  consider  this  question,  espe- 
cially as  it  is  illustrated  by  the  experience  of  certain 
prisons  in  the  United  States. 

This  diversity  forms  the  chief  distinction  between 
the  two  systems  of  prison  discipline  generally  known 
here  as  those  of  Auburn  and  of  Pennsylvania,  as  they 
are  now  administered  in  the  United  States.  It  is  not 
designed,  however,  to  discuss  the  general  merits  of 
these  systems  ;  nor  indeed  would  it  be  easy  to  give  a 
definition  of  them,  since  each  of  these  terms  is  used  in 
different  times  and  places  to  convey  very  different 
meanings.  The  Pennsylvania  system  for  some  years 
before  1829  prescribed  the  constant  confinement  of 
each  convict  to  a  solitary  cell  by  day  and  by  night, 
without  permission  to  labor.  For  several  years  after- 
wards, it  permitted  labor,  but  prohibited  all  intercourse 
between  the  convicts  and  any  other  persons,  excepting 
then  religious  teachers  and  other  official  visitors,  and 
denied  them  all  knowledge  of  anything  transpiring 
beyond  the  walls  of  the  prison,  even  of  the  situation  of 
their  families  and  friends.  At  present,  visits  may  be 
received  from  well-disposed  persons,  admitted  by  per- 
mission of  the  inspectors,  and  are  indeed  represented  to 
be  an  essential  part  of  the  system.     The  Auburn  sys- 


tern  also,  as  administered  not  only  in  Auburn  itself, 
but  in  other  places,  has  sometimes  allowed,  if  it  did  not 
prescribe,  the  frequent  application  of  blows  by  inferior 
officers,  and  other  severe  punishments,  which  in  Massa- 
chusetts were  disapproved  from  the  beginning  and 
r-"never  tolerated  in  practice.  Even  when  the  discipline  i 
\  established  in  any  particular  prison  is  known,  in  all  its  i 
\  details,  there  is  still  great  diversity  of  opinion,  as  to| 
what  portions  of  it  are  to  be  deemed  essential  to  the^ 
system,  what  only  accidental,  and  what  mere  abuses ; 
so  that  the  same  name,  be  it  Auburn  or  Pennsylvania, 
may  convey  entirely  different  ideas  to  different  persons, 
and  be  often  used  in  one  sense,  and  understood  in  an- 
other; and  thus  remarks  made  with  reference  to  a 
system,  as  it  existed  at  one  time  and  place,  and  per- 
fectly true  when  thus  understood,  have  in  fact  been 
misrepresented  as  intended  to  apply  to  it  at  others,  and 
grave  charges  of  dishonesty  and  falsehood  most  unjustly 
founded  on  such  misrepresentation.  It  is  obvious,  that 
these  and  similar  disputes  about  words,  while  they 
lead  to  much  bitter  crimination  and  recrimination,  can 
have  no  tendency  in  any  manner  to  elucidate  the  truth. 
In  such  discussions,  there  is  neither  propriety  nor 
justice  in  impeaching  the  motives  of  those  who  differ 
from  us.  They  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  corrupt 
motives  for  preferring  one  system  to  another ;  and  if 
pride  of  opinion,  or  any  like  cause  leads  them  to  mis- 
represent facts  and  arguments,  they  are  probably  un- 
conscious of  it;  and  their  errors  should  be  met  by 
evidence  and  by  reasoning,  not  by  vituperation.    Coarse 


8 


and  vulgar  epithets  add  no  weight  to  argument ;  but 
are  always  strong  indications  of  a  weak  cause  or  a 
weak  advocate,  often  of  both.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  that 
there  are  few  among  us,  who  would  imitate  the  exam- 
ple of  some  transatlantic  writers  recently  cited  here,  m 
casting  such  foul  aspersions,  few,  who  would  be  so  reck- 
less as  to  repeat  them  publicly  without  reprehension,  and 
think  to  excuse  themselves  on  the  ground,  that  they 
merely  state,  but  do  not  adopt  them ;  forgetting,  that 
as  such  an  excuse  would  be  no  justification  in  a  court 
of  law  for  repeating  words  of  slander,  so  it  is  no  apol- 
ogy for  disseminating  any  imputation  on  the  veracity 
or  integrity  of  others  in  a  court  of  conscience  or  of  ho- 
nor. But  enough  of  this.  There  is  little  danger  that 
such  aspersions  will  have  any  material  influence  on  the 
public  mind,  or  that  they  will  injure  any  but  those 
who  invent  and  those  who  circulate  them. 

There  is  danger,  however,  that  those  not  acquainted 
with  the  subject  may  be  misled  by  the  speculations 
of  distinguished  foreigners,  who,  wanting  a  sufficiently 
long  experience  in  their  own  country  and  not  suffi- 
ciently acquainted  with  our  experience,  maintain  cer- 
tain statements  and  conclusions  to  be  absolutely  and 
universally  true,  which  so  far  as  this  country  is  con- 
cerned, are  known  to  be  erroneous ;  and  whatever  may 
once  have  been  thought  of  them,  are  now  entirely  ob- 
solete among  all  intelligent  men  conversant  with  the 
practical  operation  of  the  different  systems  of  prison 
discipline  among  us. 

No  such  man  would  now  assert  or  echo  the  asser- 


9 


tion,  that  in  all  the  prisons  in  America  where  social 
labor  is  established,  every  violation  of  rule  is  punished 
on  the  spot  by  blows  inflicted  by  the  inferior  officer, 
who  witnesses  it ;  or  would  argue  or  echo  the  argu- 
ment, that  such  punishment  must  of  necessity  be  en- 
forced, in  every  prison  adopting  this  mode  of  labor ; 
when  he  must  know,  that  of  the  two  Penitentiaries  on 
this  system  existing  in  Massachusetts,  one  has  never 
admitted  any  such  punishment  at  all ;  and  in  the  other 
neither  this  nor  any  other  punishment  can  be  inflicted 
for  any  offence  whatever,  by  an  inferior  officer,  or  by 
any  other  authority  than  the  head  of  the  prison  him- 
self, who,  after  deliberate  hearing  and  consideration 
of  the  complaint  and  the  defence,  at  the  end  of  the 
day's  work,  may  cause  stripes  to  be  inflicted  in  his 
own  presence,  not  exceeding  ten,  to  which  number  he 
is  restricted  by  the  express  regulations  of  the  prison  ; 
and  who  inflicts  even  this  punishment  very  rarely. 

No  such  man  would  assert,  that  there  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  any  case  of  hallucination  or  insanity 
in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Pennsylvania,  before 
the  year  1838,  and  that  though  many  such  cases  after- 
wards occurred,  a  few  days  generally  sufficed  to  effect 
a  cure  in  them ;  when  he  must  know,  from  the  official 
reports  of  the  same  Penitentiary,  that  the  first  asser- 
tion is  entirely  erroneous,  though  exact  statements  of 
the  numbers  of  insane  were  not  regularly  made  for  the 
years  previous  to  1837 ;  and  that  the  second  assertion, 
if  once  too  hastily  countenanced,  has  since  been  so 
completely  disproved,  that  we  find  in  the  Report  of 


10 


the  Physician  of  that  Penitentiary,  for  1846,  the  fol- 
lowing passage : 

"  It  will  be  seen  by  the  table,  that  many  of  the  cases  of  in- 
sanity that  occurred  within  the  year,  were  of  a  partial  nature  ;  but 
it  must  be  confessed,  that  the  tendency  of  all  seems  to  be  to  pass 
into  dementia.  Than  this,  no  other  result  could  well  be  antici- 
pated, as  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  afford  the  patient  the  benefit  of 
judicious  moral  treatment  within  the  walls  of  any  prison  ;  and  the 
unaided  effects  of  medical  remedies  would  be  often  more  injurious 
than  useful.  It  is  true  that  the  noisy  and  turbulent  may  be  fre- 
quently reduced  to  submission  by  so  called  modes  of  treatment 
that  have  certainly  more  the  character  of  punishments  than  of 
remedial  measures ;  but  under  the  deceitful  calm  thus  produced 
the  delusions  still  exist,  and  the  quiet  and  automatic  order  that  is 
considered  as  evidence  of  restoration  to  health,  is  in  reality  the 
result  of  an  almost  complete  obliteration  of  the  mind.  Insanity  I 
believe  to  be  quite  a  curable  disease  when  taken  in  its  early  stages, 
and  when  the  physician  can  command  all  the  necessary  requisites 
for  its  treatment ;  but  if  the  patients  are  perpetually  subjected  to 
the  discipline  of  a  penal  institution,  and  they  be  really  insane  and 
not  malingerers^  I  do  not  hesitate  to  state  my  belief,  that  the  per 
centage  of  recoveries  and  non-recoveries  will  be  found  to  be  in 
an  inverse  ratio  to  what  they  are  said  to  be  in  well  regulated 
asylums. 

"  This  opinion  naturally  suggests  the  question,  ought  not  the 
prisoners  who  become  insane,  to  be  immediately  transferred  to  a 
Lunatic  Asylum,  where  their  restoration  to  sanity  may  be  looked 
upon  as  comparatively  certain,  instead  of  subjecting  them  to  treat- 
ment that  must  almost  in  every  instance  render  them  helpless  for 
life  ?  I  think  this  question  must  almost  invariably  be  answered  in  the 
affirmative  ;  for  surely  if  the  crime  be  considered  only  deserving 
of  a  temporary  incarceration,  it  would  not  be  just  to  visit  the 
offender  with  a  punishment  worse  than  death."  Eighteenth  Re- 
port, 57. 


11 


These  remarks  are  not  intended  to  convey  any  cen- 
sure on  the  able  and  learned  men,  who  made  those 
statements.  Those  which  were  erroneous  at  the  time 
when  uttered,  were  so,  no  doubt,  from  inadvertence  or 
misinformation;  and  it  is  not  wonderful,  that  even 
those  inhabitants  of  Europe  who  are  best  informed  on 
this  subject,  should  not  be  well  acquainted  with  the 
actual  condition  of  our  prisons,  when  we  ourselves, 
with  all  our  habits  of  looking  to  Europe  for  informa- 
tion, know  so  little  about  theirs.  As  to  such  of  these 
statements  and  conclusions  as  are  proved  to  be  incor- 
rect only  by  our  own  subsequent  experience,  for  these 
they  are  in  nowise  responsible,  relying  as  they  did  on 
the  best  evidence  in  their  power  at  the  time. 

But  the  wonder  is,  and  it  is  no  slight  one,  that  the 
results  of  brief  experiments  made  long  ago  by  our- 
selves, transmitted  hence  to  Europe,  and  there  received 
on  our  authority,  should,  after  many  years,  be  brought 
back  here  and  held  up  by  some  among  ourselves  as 
conclusive  and  binding  on  us,  in  opposition  to  our  own 
more  deliberate  judgment  upon  more  mature  experi- 
ence ;  as  if  the  first  hasty  deductions  from  our  own 
short  and  imperfect  observation  were  clothed  with  some 
mysterious  and  inviolable  sanction  by  passing  through 
foreign  lips,  and  the  echo  of  our  own  voices  were  the 
response  of  an  oracle.  It  is  no  such  echo,  that  we  are 
told  to  worship. 

Taking  no  shame  to  ourselves,  therefore,  for  deriving 
knowledge  from  experience,  and  holding  ourselves  en- 
tirely unfettered  by  our  own  early  and  hasty  observa- 


12 


tions,  and  just  as  free  to  alter  our  present  opinions 
hereafter,  upon  sufficient  evidence,  as  we  now  are  to 
change,  on  good  grounds,  those  heretofore  expressed; 
it  is  proposed  to  inquire  what  plan  of  prison  discipline 
appears,  from  the  evidence  now  before  us  to  he  best 
adapted  to  our  present  wants  and  condition.  The  idea 
of  holding  ourselves  perfectly  indifferent,  neither  ex- 
pressing nor  forming  any  opinion  whatever,  until  a 
long  and  mature  experience  shall  enable  us  to  form  one 
likely  to  be  definitive,  however  plausible  it  may  seem 
in  theory,  is  preposterous  in  practice ;  since  it  is  im- 
possible, while  we  postpone  forming  any  opinion,  to 
postpone  action  also ;  for  in  this  case  to  do  nothing  is 
to  act.  What  is  to  be  done  while  this  long  experience 
is  accumulating  ?  We  must  in  the  mean  time  have 
some  sort  of  prisons  and  some  sort  of  discipline.  In 
establishing  and  administering  these,  surely  it  would 
not  be  wise  to  take  no  heed  to  the  knowledge  we  pos- 
sess, because  we  do  not  possess  more ;  or  to  be  so  daz- 
zled by  the  speculations  of  others,  as  to  disregard  our 
own  experience. 

Endeavoring,  then,  to  avoid  those  expressions  which 
have  been  so  frequently  used  in  different  senses  as  to 
make  it  difficult  to  apply  them  without  danger  of  being 
misunderstood,  such  as  Anhurn,  Pennsylvania,  separate, 
congregate,  &c.,  let  us  consider  what  are  the  prominent 
features  of  the  system  now  adopted  in  theory  and  en- 
forced in  practice  in  this  vicinity. 

It  provides  for  the  entire  separation  of  the  prisoners 
by  night ;  for  training  them  up  to  active  and  dUigent 


labor  in  some  useful  occupation  during  the  day,  in 
company  with  others,  but  under  such  constant  supervi- 
sion, as  may  best  tend  to  prevent  any  dangerous  or 
corrupting  intercourse,  thus  giving  them  at  the  same 
time  and  during  all  their  time  of  labor,  the  benefits  of 
healthy  exercise,  industrious  habits  and  social  existr 
ence ;  for  their  religious  and  moral  improvement,  for 
their  instruction  in  classes  and  for  thek  physical  health 
and  comfort,  and  it  permits  no  more  or  greater  punish- 
ments, than  are  absolutely  requisite  for  these  objects 
and  for  the  preservation  of  good  order ;  and  these  to 
be  inflicted  only  by  authority  of  the  head  of  the  prison, 
after  due  hearing  and  deliberation. 

The  advocates  of  labor  in  solitude  will  readily  concur 
in  the  propriety  of  all  these  provisions,  excepting  those 
for  labor  in  company  and  instruction  in  classes.  And 
since  all  the  objections  urged  against  social  instruction 
exist  also  against  social  labor,  so  that  if  labor  in  classes 
be  allowed,  no  one  will  contend  that  instruction  in 
classes  should  not  be  allowed  also ;  the  whole  discus- 
sion may  practically  be  confined  to  a  comparison  of  the 
relative  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  having  the 
labor  of  the  convicts  carried  on  in  society  or  in  solitude. 
The  other  provisions  above  stated,  and  many  more,  such 
as  the  precise  nature  of  the  punishments,  the  allow- 
ance of  overstint,  &c.,  whether  deemed  essential  or 
not  so,  have  no  bearing  on  this  discussion,  inasmuch  as, 
whatever  decision  may  be  adopted  mth  regard  to  any 
of  them,  is  equally  compatible  with  either  mode  of 
labor. 


14 


The  great  danger  to  Ibe  guarded  against  in  this  dis- 
cussion by  those  really  in  search  of  truth  alone,  is  that 
which  chiefly  retards  improvement  in  the  physical  and 
other  mixed  sciences ;  an  obstinate  attachment  to  hasty 
generalizations,  the  assumption  upon  insufficient  evi- 
dence, and  sometimes  on  mere  speculation  without  evi- 
dence, of  general  propositions,  axioms  or  principles, 
and  a  pertinacious  adherence  to  them  in  spite  of  sub- 
sequent experience. 

In  this  pertinacity  lies  all  the  evil.  To  reduce  what 
we  know  on  any  subject  to  general  expressions,  is 
highly  useful,  tending  to  methodize  the  knowledge  we 
already  possess,  so  that  it  may  be  more  easily  remem- 
bered and  applied,  and  at  the  same  time  to  guide  our 
inquiries  and  experiments  for  the  acquisition  of  more 
knowledge.  But  it  should  always  be  kept  in  mind, 
that  though  in  the  abstract  or  pure  sciences,  there  are 
fundamental  principles  independent  of  experience  and 
necessarily  true,  yet  in  the  mixed  sciences,  in  which 
all  speculation  must  be  founded  on  experience,  and 
corrected  by  it,  all  our  generalizations,  call  them  prin- 
ciples or  what  you  will,  can  be  nothing  more  than  the 
deductions  of  fallible  reason  from  imperfect  knowledge, 
and  are  therefore  merely  provisional.  The  conclusions 
of  abstract  science  are  deduced  from  axioms,  which  the 
human  mind  cannot  conceive  to  be  erroneous,  and  of 
course  are  more  certain  than  deductions  from  experi- 
ence, since  this  rests  after  all  on  the  evidence  of  the 
senses,  which  we  know  to  be  capable  of  deceiving  us. 
And  as  all  our  deductions  in  the  mixed  sciences  have 


15 


no  other  foundation  than  experience,  they  cannot  be 
more  certain  than  the  evidence  on  which  it  rests,  and 
may  of  course  be  countervailed  by  the  Ul^e  evidence. 
This  consideration  is  peculiarly  important  with  reference 
to  sciences,  which,  like  that  of  prison  discipline,  are  yet 
in  theii'  infancy.  For  where  our  knowledge  is  very 
extensive,  so  that  our  deductions  are  supported  by 
long,  varied  and  uniform  experience,  we  act  on  them 
with  as  much  confidence  as  if  they  had  the  certainty 
of  mathematical  demonstration ;  though  this  they  can 
never  acquire,  nor  can  they  for  a  moment  be  main- 
tained in  opposition  to  a  single  well-established 
fact. 

The  mischievous  consequences,  which  have  resulted, 
in  this  country,  from  an  unyielding  adherence  to  hasty 
opinions  on  this  subject  are  so  remarkable,  and  tend  so 
fully  to  illustrate  the  origin,  history  and  present  condi- 
tion of  this  new  science  among  us,  as  well  as  to  guide 
our  future  investigations ;  that  it  may  be  instructive 
to  present  a  brief  sketch  of  the  progress  of  opinion  and 
of  improvement  here  in  relation  to  it. 

The  first  persevering  and  efficient  efforts  in  America 
to  reform  the  whole  system  of  prison  discipline  were 
made  by  "  The  Philadelphia  Society  for  relieving  the 
miseries  of  public  prisons,"  established  in  1787.  The 
statements  made  of  the  condition  of  the  prison  in  Phil- 
adelphia at  that  time  are  such,  that  if  they  were  not 
supported  by  high,  uniform  and  uncontradicted  author- 
ity, it  would  be  impossible  for  us  at  this  day  to  believe 
them.     It  is  represented  as  a  scene  of  promiscuous 


16 


and  unrestricted  intercourse,  and  universal  riot  and  de- 
bauchery. There  was  no  labor,  no  separation  of  those 
accused,  but  yet  untried,  nor  even  of  those  confined  for 
debt  only,  from  convicts  sentenced  for  the  foulest 
crimes  ;  no  separation  of  color,  age  or  sex,  by  day  or  by 
night ;  the  prisoners  lying  promiscuously  on  the  floor, 
most  of  them  without  anything  like  bed  or  bedding. 
As  soon  as  the  sexes  were  placed  in  different  wings, 
which  was  the  first  reform  made  in  the  prison,  of  thirty 
or  forty  women  then  confined  there,  all  but  four  or  five 
immediately  left  it ;  it  having  been  a  common  practice, 
it  is  said,  for  women  to  cause  themselves  to  be  arrested 
for  fictitious  debts,  that  they  might  share  in  the  orgies 
of  the  place.  Intoxicating  liquors  abounded,  and  in- 
deed were  freely  sold  at  a  bar  kept  by  one  of  the  offi- 
cers of  the  prison.  Intercourse  between  the  convicts 
and  persons  without  was  hardly  restricted.  Prisoners 
tried  and  acquitted,  were  still  detained  till  they  should 
pay  jail  fees  to  the  keeper ;  and  the  custom  of  garnish 
was  established  and  unquestioned;  that  is,  the  custom 
of  stripping  every  new  comer  of  his  outer  clothing,  to 
be  sold  for  liquor,  unless  redeemed  by  the  payment  of 
a  sum  of  money  to  be  applied  to  the  same  object.  It 
need  hardly  be  added,  that  there  was  no  attempt  to 
give  any  kind  of  instruction,  and  no  religious  service 
whatsoever.  Such  are  the  naked  facts.  The  following 
representation  of  the  state  of  the  prison,  while  these 
and  similar  enormities  prevailed  there,  is  contained  in 
the  "  Notices  of  the  efforts  to  improve  the  Prison  at 
Philadelphia,  by  Roberts  Vaux." 


17 


"  On  the  day  of  the  adoption  of  this  constitution,  the  society 
elected  its  officers  and  committees,  who  proceeded  to  an  immediate 
fulfilment  of  their  important  and  benevolent  duties. 

"  It  is  much  to  be  regretted,  that  the  first  minutes  of  the  acting 
committee,  which  contained,  doubtless,  a  mass  of  intelligence  which 
would  now  be  deeply  interesting,  cannot  be  found.  Recourse  has 
therefore  been  had  to  a  few  of  the  venerable  persons,  who,  after  a 
lapse  of  almost  forty  years,  survive  to  relate  some  of  the  occur- 
rences connected  with  their  early  labors  in  this  field  of  beneficence 
and  patriotism.  Their  representations  of  the  condition  of  the  jail, 
and  of  those  confined  in  it  when  their  visits  commenced,  are  truly 
appalling.  A  brief  sketch  of  these  will  serve  to  prove  at  once  the 
immense  difficulties  of  the  undertaking,  and  the  moral  courage 
which  must  have  been  exerted  to  overcome  them.  The  prison,  as 
already  stated,  was  at  the  corner  of  High  and  Third  streets,  then 
nearly  in  the  centre  of  the  population  of  the  city.  It  is  said  to 
have  been  an  injudiciously-contrived  building,  with  subterraneous 
dungeon  for  prisoners  under  sentence  of  death.  What  a  spectacle 
must  this  abode  of  guilt  and  wretchedness  have  presented,  when 
in  one  common  herd  were  kept,  by  day  and  by  night,  prisoners  of 
all  ages,  colors,  and  sexes !  No  separation  was  made  of  the  most 
flagrant  offender  and  convict,  from  the  prisoner  who  might  perhaps 
be  falsely  suspected  of  some  trifling  misdemeanor ;  —  none,  of  the 
old  and  hardened  culprit,  from  the  youthful  and  trembling  novice 
in  crime  ;  —  none,  of  the  fraudulent  swindler,  from  the  unfortunate 
and  possibly  the  most  estimable  debtor ;  and  when  intermingled 
with  all  these,  in  one  corrupt  and  corrupting  assemblage,  were  to 
be  found  the  disgusting  object  of  popular  contempt,  besmeared 
with  filth  from  the  pillory — the  unhappy  victim  of  the  lash,  stream- 
ing with  blood  from  the  whipping  post  —  the  half  naked  vagrant  — 
the  loathsome  drunkard  —  the  sick,  suffering  with  various  bodily 
pains  —  and  too  often,  the  unaneled  malefactor,  whose  precious 
hours  of  probation  had  been  numbered  by  his  earthly  judge. 

"  Some  of  these  deplorable  objects,  not  entirely  screened  from 
the  public  eye  by  ill-constructed  walls,  exposed  themselves  daily  at 
the  windows,  through  which  they  pushed  out  into  the  street  bags 


18 


and  baskets,  suspended  upon  poles,  to  receive  the  alms  of  the  pas- 
senger whose  sympathy  might  be  excited  by  their  wails  of  real  or 
affected  anguish ;  or  if  disappointed,  they  seldom  failed  to  vent  a 
torrent  of  abuse  on  those  who  were  unmoved  by  their  recitals,  or 
who  disapproved  of  their  importunity.  To  increase  the  horror  and 
disgust  of  the  scene,  the  ear  was  continually  assailed  by  the  clank 
of  fetters,  or  with  expressions  the  most  obscene  and  profane,  loudly 
and  fiercely  uttered,  as  by  the  lips  of  demons, 

"  The  keeper  derived  his  appointment  from  the  sheriff  of  the 
city  and  county  of  Philadelphia ;  and  had  been  for  many  years 
retained  in  office,  on  account  of  his  supposed  competency  for  a 
charge  so  disagreeable,  as  to  excite  neither  desire  nor  competition 
on  the  part  of  persons  better  qualified  to  occupy  the  station.  In- 
deed the  circumstances,  under  which  the  incumbent  had  been  long 
connected  with  criminals,  caused  him  to  be  suspected  of  a  more 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  depredations  committed  in  the  city,  than 
comported  with  that  unblemished  reputation  which  ought  to  belong 
to  such  an  officer.  Whether  justly  suspected  or  not,  certain  it  is, 
that  he  viewed  the  first  interference  of  the  members  of  the  society 
as  altogether  improper  and  unnecessary,  and  contrived  to  interpose 
every  possible  obstacle  to  the  prosecution  of  their  plans  ;  a  deport- 
ment which  went  far  to  confirm  the  unfavorable  opinions  enter- 
tained of  his  character.  An  anecdote,  related  by  one  of  the  acting 
committee,  exhibits  at  once  the  disposition  of  the  jailer,  and  a 
specimen  of  the  arts  to  which  he  resorted  for  deterring  the  mem- 
bers of  that  body  from  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  The  gentle- 
man alluded  to  was  a  clergyman,  (the  late  William  Rogers,  D.  D.) 
who,  believing  that  benefit  would  result  to  the  prisoners  from  an 
occasional  sermon,  called  on  the  keeper  to  inform  him  of  his  in- 
tention to  preach  '  on  the  following  Sunday.'  This  proved  most 
unwelcome  intelligence  to  the  keeper,  who  instantly  declared  that 
such  a  measure  was  not  only  fraught  with  peril  to  the  person  who 
might  deliver  the  address,  but  would  involve  also  the  risk  of  the 
escape  of  all  the  criminals,  and  the  consequent  pillage  or  murder 
of  the  citizens.  To  this  the  clergyman  answered,  that  he  did  not 
anticipate  such  a  result,  and  for  himself  he  did  not  apprehend  even 


19 


the  slightest  injury.  Leaving,  however,  the  keeper  utterly  uncon- 
vinced, he  waited  upon  the  sheriff,  who,  on  being  told  what  had 
passed,  issued  a  written  order  to  the  jailor,  to  prepare  for  the  in- 
tended religious  service.  At  the  appointed  time  the  clergyman 
repaired  to  the  prison,  and  was  there  received  with  a  reserve  bor- 
dering on  incivility.  The  keeper  reluctantly  admitted  him  through 
the  iron  gate,  to  a  platform  at  the  top  of  the  steps  leading  to  the 
yard,  where  a  loaded  cannon  was  placed,  and  a  man  beside  it  with 
a  lighted  match.  The  motley  concourse  of  prisoners  was  arranged 
in  a  solid  column,  extending  to  the  greatest  distance  which  the  wall 
would  allow,  and  in  front  of  the  instrument  prepared  for  their  de- 
struction, in  the  event  of  the  least  commotion.  This  formidable 
apparatus  failed  to  intimidate  or  obstruct  the  preacher,  who  dis- 
coursed to  the  unhappy  multitude  for  almost  an  hour,  not  only  un- 
molested, but  as  he  had  reason  to  think,  with  advantage  to  his 
hearers,  most  of  whom  gave  him  their  respectful  attention,  and  all 
behaved  with  much  greater  decency  than  he  expected.  This  ser- 
mon, it  is  asserted,  was  the  first  ever  delivered  to  the  whole  of  the 
prisoners  in  Philadelphia,  and  perhaps  it  preceded  every  attempt  of 
the  kind  in  any  other  city.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  duty  in  this  case 
was  performed  under  very  extraordinary  circumstances.  Not  long 
afterwards,  when  Bishop  White,  the  President  of  the  Society,  was 
about  to  ofiiciate  in  the  same  prison,  the  keeper,  with  similar  de- 
signs, very  significantly  advised  him  to  leave  his  watch  on  the  out- 
side of  the  gateway,  lest  it  should  be  purloined  ;  but  the  intimation 
was  disregarded,  and  the  service  administered  without  molestation." 
Page  12—17. 

The  Pliiladelpliia  Society,  condemning  all  these 
abuses,  and  earnestly  recommending  their  correction, 
laid  it  down,  in  the  outset,  that  the  great  engines  of 
correction  were  solitude  and  labor.  Such  was  the  effect 
of  their  appeals  to  the  Legislature,  and  their  influence 
on  public  opinion,  that  an  act  was  passed  on  5th  April, 
1790,  at  their  suggestion. 


20 


"  This  act  repealed  all  the  former  laws  upon  the  subject,  and  com- 
pleted the  essay  of  the  penitentiary  system  ;  after  providing  the  pun- 
ishment of  hard  labor  for  certain  offences,  it  directed,  in  the  8th 
section,  that  the  commissioners  of  Philadelphia  county  should 
cause  a  suitable  number  of  cells  to  be  constructed,  six  feet  wide, 
eight  feet  long,  and  nine  feet  high,  '  for  the  purpose  of  confining 
therein  the  more  hardened  and  atrocious  offenders,'  who  may  have 
been  sentenced  to  hard  labor  for  a  term  of  years.  Separation  be- 
tween convicts,  vagrants,  and  persons  charged  with  misdemeanors, 
was  directed  to  be  enforced  '  as  much  as  the  convenience  of  the 
building  would  admit.'  The  convicts  were  to  be  clothed  in  habits 
of  coarse  materials,  uniform  in  color  and  make ;  the  males  were  to 
have  their  heads  and  beards  shaved  close,  at  least  once  in  each 
week ;  they  were  to  be  sustained  on  the  coarsest  food,  and  held  to 
labor  of  the  hardest  and  most  servile  kind,  during  which  they  were 
to  be  '  kept  separate  and  apart  from  each  other,  if  the  nature  of 
their  several  employments  will  admit  thereof ; '  and  '  where  the 
nature  of  the  employment  requires  two  or  more  to  work  together, 
the  keeper  of  the  jail  or  one  of  his  deputies  shall,  if  possible, 
be  constantly  present.'  A  subsequent  section  enacted,  that  if  pro- 
per employment  could  be  found,  the  prisoners  might  also  be  per- 
mitted to  work  in  the  yard  ;  provided  it  were  done  in  the  presence, 
or  within  view  of  the  keeper  or  his  deputies.  The  numbers  of 
hours  of  work  was  also  prescribed,  viz.  :  eight  in  November,  De- 
cember, and  January,  nine  in  Februaiy  and  October,  and  ten  in 
every  other  month. 

"  An  act,  passed  on  the  22d  of  April,  1794,  (3  Smith's  Laws, 
186,)  provided,  (sect.  11,)  that  persons  convicted  of  crimes,  which 
by  former  laws  were  punishable  with  death,  (except  murder  in  the 
first  degree)  should  be  kept  in  the  solitary  cells,  on  low  diet,  for 
such  portion  of  the  term  of  imprisonment,  (not  more  than  one  half, 
nor  less  than  one  twelfth  part  thereof,)  as  the  court  in  their  sen- 
tence should  direct  and  appoint.  The  act  of  the  18th  April,  1795, 
(3  Smith's  Laws,  246,)  enacted  that  the  inspectors  of  the  prison 
should  have  full  power  to  class  the  different  prisoners,  in  such  man- 
ner as  they  should  judge  would  best  promote  the  object  of  their 


21 


confinement.  The  provisions  of  the  act  of  1790,  which  directed 
that  the  clothing  of  the  convict  should  be  of  the  coarsest  materials, 
and  their  labor  of  the  hardest  and  most  severe  kind,  were  repealed  ; 
as  was  also  a  clause  of  the  same  act,  which  allowed  the  keeper  of 
the  prison  a  commission  of  five  per  cent,  on  the  sale  of  articles 
manufactured  by  the  convicts. 

"  These  are  the  chief  provisions  of  the  acts  relating  to  peni- 
tentiary punishments.  It  will  be  seen,  upon  examination,  that  they 
contemplated  a  system  of  classification,  at  least,  as  between  the 
tried  and  untried,  of  severe  and  unremitting  labor  during  the  hours 
at  which  labor  is  practicable  by  day-light ;  and  of  separation  of  the 
offenders,  during  the  period  of  labor,  where  the  nature  of  the  em- 
ployment permitted  of  it.  No  provision  was  made,  however,  for 
any  general  system  of  solitary  confinement,  nor  even  for  the  soli- 
tary confinement  of  any  class  of  criminals,  during  the  whole  period 
of  imprisonment.  All  that  appears  to  have  been  contemplated  was 
solitary  confinement,  for  a  greater  or  less  term,  according  to  the 
sentence  of  the  court,  and  the  subsequent  return  of  the  offender 
to  the  society  and  intercourse  of  other  convicts.  Certainly,  no  pro- 
vision was  made  for  separate  dormitories,  or  separation  during 
meals.  The  size  of  the  cells,  which  the  act  of  1790  required  to 
be  constructed,  seems  to  negative  the  idea  of  their  being  intended 
for  the  separate  confinement  of  individuals.  The  cells  in  the  Au- 
burn prison  are  only  seven  feet  long,  seven  feet  high,  and  three  and 
a  half  feet  wide,  and  are  sufficiently  capacious  for  the  intended 
purpose.  The  area  of  the  cells  at  Philadelphia,  according  to  the 
directions  of  the  act,  was  to  be  more  than  twice  this  size,  or  as 
48  to  21.  It  is  evident  that  the  limits  of  the  prison  would  not 
have  admitted  of  the  construction  of  cells  of  this  size  for  more 
than  a  small  number  of  prisoners.  And  it  soon  became  evident, 
that  the  cells  constructed  by  the  commissioners  were  not  suffi- 
ciently numerous  even  for  '  the  more  hardened  and  atrocious 
offenders.'  Consequently,  the  intercourse  between  the  convicts, 
both  by  day  and  night,  became  constant  and  corrupting."  Report 
of  the  Commissioners  of  Pennsylvania,  December  24,  1827. 


22 


Under  the  act  of  1790,  before  the  end  of  that  year, 
twenty-four  solitary  cells  were  built  for  the  safe  keep- 
ing and  proper  correction  of  the  obstinate  ;  moral  and 
religious  instruction  was  provided  for,  by  introducing 
bibles  and  other  religious  books,  by  having  divine  ser- 
vice performed  once  a  week  by  the  clergy  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  by  allowing  other  edifying  persons  access 
to  the  prisoners  at  all  times ;  a  regular  course  of 
labor  was  kept  up ;  the  stxes  separated ;  spirituous 
liquors  prohibited ;  improper  connections  from  without 
excluded ;  and  the  refractory  confined  to  solitude,  low 
diet,  and  hard  labor ;  jail  fees  and  garnish  being  at 
the  same  time  abolished. 

In  the  reports  of  the  Inspectors  to  the  Governor  of 
the  state,  dated  Dec.  7,  1791,  when  the  system  had 
been  in  operation  about  one  year,  is  this  passage : 

"  From  the  experiments  already  made,  we  have  reason  to  con- 
gratulate our  fellow-citizens  on  the  happy  reformation  of  the  penal 
system.  The  prison  is  no  longer  a  scene  of  debauchery,  idleness 
and  profanity  ;  an  epitome  of  human  wretchedness  ;  a  seminary  of 
crimes  destructive  to  society  ;  but  a  school  of  reformation,  and  a 
place  of  public  labor." 

An  account  of  this  system  was  published  in  1793, 
when  it  had  been  somewhat  more  than  two  years  in 
operation,  drawn  up  by  Caleb  Lownes,  one  of  the  in- 
spectors of  the  prison,  from  which  we  learn,  that  in  case 
of  improper  behavior,  which  had  very  seldom  happened, 
the  prisoners  were  removed  to  the  solitary  cells,  and 
abridged  in  their  diet,  any  material  variation  from  the 
rules  of  the  prison  being  thus  punished.     There  had 


23 


been  only  one  instance  of  refusal  to  work,  which  was 
in  this  way  soon  remedied  ;  and  but  one  other  case  of 
a  wilful  violation  of  the  rules  among  the  male  prison- 
ers had  occurred,  which  was  that  of  two  men  fighting, 
who  were  both  punished  in  the  same  manner. 

The  men  convicts  were  lodged  on  the  second  floor  of 
the  East  wing,  a  floor  containing  five  rooms,  each  of 
nearly  twenty  feet  by  eighteen,  one  of  them  occupied 
by  the  shoemakers  for  a  shop,  one  for  the  tailors  and 
barber,  and  the  other  three  for  lodging  rooms.  From 
this  and  other  authorities,  it  is  clear,  that  those  engaged 
in  the  same  occupation  labored  together  during  the 
day,  and  that  many  slept  in  the  same  room  together  at 
night.  It  is  stated,  that  with  an  average  of  rather 
more  than  one  hundred  convicts,  the  penitentiary  was 
conducted  for  several  years  with  encouraging  success. 
At  one  time  however,  it  is  remarked  that  the  number 
was  only  thirty-seven ;  of  whom  ten  were  women. 
This  was  on  the  third  day  of  December,  1792,  and  the 
smallness  of  this  number  may  be  explained  by  the 
consideration,  that  as  nearly  two  hundred  were  par- 
doned in  the  two  first  years,  many  of  them  may  have 
been  released  at  nearly  the  same  time. 

The  result  of  these  improvements  for  those  two 
years  is  set  forth  in  the  same  account.  After  stating 
that  of  the  large  number  thus  pardoned  only  four  had 
been  returned ;  it  proceeds  as  follows  : 

"  As  several  of  those  thus  discharged  were  old  offenders,  there 
was  some  reason  to  fear  that  they  would  not  long  behave  as  honest 
citizens.     But,  if  they  have  returned  to  their  old  courses,  they  have 


24 


chosen  to  run  the  risk  of  being  hanged  in  other  states,  rather  than 
encounter  the  certainty  of  being  confined  in  the  penitentiary  cells 
of  this.  We  may  therefore  conclude,  that  the  plan  adopted  has 
had  a  good  effect  on  these  ;  for  it  is  a  fact  well  known,  that  many 
of  them  were  heretofore  frequently  at  the  bar  of  public  justice,  and 
had  often  received  the  punishment  of  their  crimes  under  the  for- 
mer laws. 

"  Our  streets  now  meet  with  no  interruption  from  those  charac- 
ters that  formerly  rendered  it  dangerous  to  walk  out  in  an  evening. 
Our  roads  in  the  vicinity  of  th3  city,  so  constantly  infested  with 
robbers,  are  seldom  disturbed  by  those  dangerous  characters.  The 
few  instances  that  have  occurred  of  the  latter,  last  fall,  were  soon 
stopped.  The  perpetrators  proved  to  be  strangers,  quartered  near 
the  city,  on  their  way  to  the  westward. 

"  Our  houses,  stores,  and  vessels,  so  perpetually  disturbed  and 
robbed,  no  longer  experience  those  alarming  evils.  We  lie  down 
in  peace,  we  sleep  in  security. 

"  There  have  been  but  two  instances  of  burglaries  in  this  city 
and  county  for  near  two  years.  Pickpockets,  formerly  such  pests 
to  society,  are  now  unknown.  Not  one  instance  has  occurred  of  a 
person  being  convicted  of  this  offence  for  two  years  past.  The 
number  of  persons  convicted  at  the  several  courts  have  constantly 
decreased  ;  thirty  and  upwards,  at  a  session,  have  frequently  been 
added  to  the  criminal  list :  at  this  time,  when  both  city  and  county 
courts  are  but  a  few  days  distant,  there  are  but  Jive  for  trial  ! 
Such  have  been  our  measures,  such  is  the  state  of  things,  and  such 
the  effect.  If  any  one  can  assign  other  causes  for  them,  than  are 
here  adduced,  they  must  have  other  opportunities,  other  means  of 
information  than  I  am  acquainted  with."  Lownes  on  Penal  Laws 
of  Pennsylvania. 

It  is  not  at  all  surprising,  that  those,  who  had  wit- 
nessed the  previous  condition  of  the  prison,  should 
speak  of  it,  at  that  time,  with  unmingled  and  unbound- 
ed admiration.     But  it  may  well  surprise  us.  with  our 


25 


present  experience,  that  such  an  instantaneous  and 
complete  reform,  not  only  in  the  prison,  but  in  the 
whole  condition  of  society,  as  some  of  these  statements 
would  indicate,  should  be  supposed  to  have  been 
brought  about  by  this  new  system  of  prison  discipline, 
from  the  very  first  moment  of  its  adoption.  Perhaps 
other  causes  might  now  be  discerned  cooperating  with 
it,  but  it  is  not  material  to  the  present  purpose  to  discuss 
them.  The  facts  of  course  cannot  be  doubted,  and  it  is 
enough  that  no  other  cause  for  them  appears  then  to 
have  been  thought  of,  and  that  they  were  ascribed  to 
this  alone. 

As  these  statements  were  more  and  more  widely  cii^- 
culated,  it  was  natural  that  this  new  penitentiary  sys- 
tem, as  actually  established  in  Philadelphia,  should  be 
hailed  throughout  America,  and  wherever  known  in 
Europe,  as  absolutely  perfect.  True,  it  did  not  enforce 
the  entire  solitude  originally  suggested  by  the  Phila- 
delphia Society  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  employed  many 
together  in  the  same  workshop  by  day,  and  lodged 
many  in  the  same  room  at  night.  But  its  triumphant 
success  seems  to  have  precluded  all  questions  on  this 
head;  and  the  very  idea  of  separating  each  convict 
from  all  others,  either  by  day  or  b}^  night,  if  not  for- 
mally renounced,  appears  to  have  been  entirely  lost 
sight  of,  for  many  years.  Many  other  States,  indeed 
all  those  which,  within  twenty-five  years  afterwards, 
were  willing  to  establish  the  best  of  all  possible  sys- 
tems of  prison  discipline,  built  penitentiaries,  some  at 
great  cost,  which  were  exactly  adapted  to  this  system 


26 


as  it  existed  practically  in  Philadelphia,  and  which 
allowed  a  like  degree  of  intercourse  by  day  and  by 
night. 

Prisons  were  established  upon  this  plan,  at  New 
York,  in  1796;  Pvichmond,  Va.  in  1800  ;  Charlestown, 
Mass.  in  1804  ;  Windsor,  Vt.  in  1808  ;  Baltimore,  Md. 
in  1811 ;  Concord,  N.  II.  in  1812 ;  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
in  1816.  Similar  prisons  were  also  established  in  New 
Jersey,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky. 

Meantime  this  system,  on  further  trial  in  Philadel- 
phia, was  seen  by  those  who  watched  its  operation 
closely,  to  produce  results  very  different  from  those  first 
ascribed  to  it.  The  earliest  indication  we  can  now 
trace  of  this  change  was  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
convictions.  It  has  been  seen  that  their  diminution 
during  the  first  three  or  four  years  was  relied  on  as 
conclusive  proof  of  the  success  of  the  system.  Their 
number  had  giadually  diminished  from  131,  in  1789, 
to  45,  in  1793.  But  it  gradually  rose  again  to  145,  in 
1796,  thus  somewhat  exceeding  the  number  before  the 
reform,  but  so  little,  as  not  to  authorize  the  conclusion, 
that  the  result  of  this  new  system  itself,  at  that  time 
was  either  an  increase  or  a  diminution  of  the  number. 
From  this  time  till  1807  it  increased  at  least  as  fast  as 
the  population ;  and  thenceforward  in  a  manner  quite 
alarming. 

In  a  statistical  view  published  in  1817  by  the  Phil- 
adelphia Society,  the  Penitentiary  is  spoken  of  as  an 
institution  which  "  abeady  begins  to  assume,  especially 
as  respects  untried  prisoners,  the  character  of  an  Eu- 


27 


ropean  prison,  and  a  seminary  for  every  vice,  in  which 
the  unfortunate  being  who  commits  a  first  offence,  and 
knows  none  of  the  arts  of  methodized  villany,  can 
scarcely  avoid  the  contamination  which  leads  to  ex- 
treme depravity,  and  with  which,  from  the  insufficiency 
of  the  room  to  form  separate  accommodations,  he  must 
be  associated  in  liis  confinement."  p.  23.  Tliis  change 
is  ascribed  to  the  increased  number  of  prisoners,  and  it 
is  remarked,  that  in  the  beginning,  "  the  rooms  in  the 
prison  and  the  prison  yard  afforded  convenient  and 
ample  room  for  the  separation  and  emplo^nnent  of  the 
convicts."  It  was  probably  by  some  such  general  and 
vague  remark  as  this,  that  the  Commissioners  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, or  their  informants,  were  subsequently  mis- 
led to  make  the  statement  contained  in  their  report  in 
1817,  that  "  during  a  few  years  after  the  establishment 
of  the  penitentiary  at  Philadelphia,  this  institution  was 
provided  with  sufficient  room  and  the  proper  accommo- 
dations for  the  separation  of  the  convicts  from  each 
other.  By  the  vigilance  of  the  keepers,  all  intercourse 
and  communication  was  prevented  by  day,  and  at  night 
the  prisoners  were  lodged  in  solitary  cells."  p.  87. 

The  incorrectness  of  this  statement  is  certain  from 
contemporary  and  official  documents,  as  well  as  from 
the  publications  of  the  Philadelphia  Society  itself  A 
similar  error  is  made  in  the  same  repoii  with  regard  to 
the  penitentiary  at  New  York,  of  which  it  is  said,  that 
it  "  was  as  successful  in  its  operation,  as  that  of  Penn- 
sylvania formerly  was,  while  under  like  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, when  the  prisoners  were  properly  assorted 


28 


while  at  work  and  at  meals,  and  the  influence  of  soli- 
tary confinement  at  night  was  added  to  that  of  a  faith- 
ful inspection  on  the  part  of  the  keepers  during  the 
day."  The  rooms  in  the  New  York  penitentiary  were 
12  feet  by  18,  and  originally  designed  for  the  accom- 
modation of  eight  persons  in  each,  which  number  was 
soon  exceeded.  At  the  present  day,  all  men  in  this 
country,  however  they  may  diifer  on  other  points,  con- 
cur in  the  opinion,  that  allowing  convicts  to  remain 
together  in  the  same  room  at  night  without  restriction 
or  control,  must  be  fatal  to  any  system  of  prison  disci- 
pline. No  doubt  the  CAdl  resulting  from  this  practice 
was  rendered  more  extensive  and  more  obvious  by  the 
increased  number  of  the  prisoners  ;  but  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, it  would  now  be  deemed  altogether  intol- 
erable. 

Yet  from  1793  to  1801,  notwithstanding  the  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  convicts  in  Pennsylvania,  we 
find  no  objection  to  this  practice,  and  indeed  no  men- 
tion of  it  or  of  its  consequences  by  the  officers  of  the 
prison  or  from  any  other  quarter,  not  even  from  the 
Philadelpliia  Society.  But  in  1801,  in  1803  and  sub- 
sequently, tliis  excellent  and  vigilant  society  presented 
memorials  to  the  legislature  of  the  state  reminding  it, 
that  they  had  originally  recommended  solitude  as  well 
as  labor,  and  requesting  that  provision  should  be  made, 
if  not  for  entire  solitude,  at  least  for  separating  the 
convicts  into  smaller  classes.  These  however  pro- 
ducing no  result,  the  evil  became  at  length  so  exten- 
sive and  alarming,  that  in  1817  they  published  to  the 


29 


world  the  statistical  view  above  cited.  Tliis  appeal  at 
once  roused  the  public  mind  and  gave  a  new  turn  to 
the  current  of  opinion  in  America.  The  discussions 
to  which  it  gave  rise,  led  in  a  few  years  to  the  univer- 
sal admission,  that  the  system  practically  in  operation 
in  Philadelphia  ever  since  1790,  and  which  had  been 
adopted  and  pursued  by  so  many  other  States,  had  been 
too  hastily  deemed  perfect,  on  the  strength  of  a  few 
years  experience,  and  too  implicitly  adhered  to,  in 
spite  of  so  many  more  years  experience  of  its  evils ; 
and  that  the  prisons  founded  on  it  were  in  fact  not 
schools  of  reform  as  had  been  fondly  fancied,  but  semi- 
naries of  utter  depravity  and  corruption. 

Thus  completely  disappointed  in  their  expectations 
of  success  from  the  system  first  established  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  afterwards  in  so  many  other  places,  cer- 
tain zealous  advocates  of  a  reform  in  prison  discipline, 
by  a  revulsion  not  unnatural,  resorted  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  since  labor  without  solitude  had  failed, 
proposed  the  plan  of  solitude  without  labor.  Some  of 
the  most  prominent  arguments  in  favor  of  this  new 
scheme  were  professedly  founded  on  the  principles  of 
the  human  mind  and  the  nature  of  things  and  other 
such  "branches  of  learning"  as  are  usually  resorted  to 
only  for  want  of  better  reasons,  and  less  frequently  used 
to  aid  us  in  forming  opinions  than  in  defending  opin- 
ions already  adopted.  In  themselves  and  independent 
of  experience,  they  are  little  worth,  since  who  shall 
determine  in  what  the  nature  of  things  and  the  princi- 
ples of  the  human  mind  consist? 


30 


It  was  alleged,  in  substance,  that  the  principles,  upon 
which  the  avoidance  of  crime  is  founded  and  repent- 
ance brought  about  are  these  : 

"  1.  A  tiresome  state  of  mind  from  idle  seclusion ;  2.  Self-condem- 
nation arising  from  deep,  long-continued  and  poignant  reflections 
upon  a  guilty  life.  All  our  endeavors,  therefore,  ought  to  be  direct- 
ed to  the  production  of  that  state  of  mind,  which  will  cause  a  con- 
vict to  concentrate  his  thoughts  upon  his  forlorn  condition,  to  ab- 
stract himself  from  the  world,  and  to  think  of  nothing  except  the 
suffering  and  the  privations  he  endures,  the  result  of  his  crimes. 
Such  a  state  of  mind  is  totally  incompatible  with  the  least  mechan- 
ical operation,  but  is  only  to  be  brought  about,  if  ever,  by  complete 
mental  and  bodily  insulation."  Mease  on  Penitentiary  System, 
p.  73. 

This  frame  of  mind  cannot  take  place  "  so  long  as  a 
convict  is  occupied  by  manual  labor,  or  the  slightest 
occupation  either  in  society  with  fellow-convicts,  or  in 
a  solitary  cell."  If  the  promotion  of  this  is  the  main 
object,  if  it  is  good,  that  some  time  should  be  devoted 
to  it,  the  more  time  there  is  devoted  to  it  the  better. 
It  should  engross  the  whole  time.  Let  religious  in- 
struction and  repentance  be  the  only  occupations  of 
the  convict,  from  which  his  attention  shall  never  be 
distracted  by  worldly  intercourse  or  worldly  toil.  Thus 
his  reformation  will  be  more  speedily  accomplished; 
and  the  time  of  his  imprisonment  may  be  shortened, 
with  benefit  both  to  himself  and  to  the  public. 

Such  was  the  conclusion  adopted  by  many  intelli- 
gent and  benevolent  men,  influenced  by  no  other  mo- 
tive than  a  sincere  desbe  to  promote  the  interests  of 
humanity.     Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  correct- 


31 


ness  of  the  conclusion  itself,  it  by  no  means  follows 
from  the  premises.  The  argument  on  which  it  rests 
is  false  logic,  for  the  premises  are  particular,  while 
the  conclusion  is  universal.  If  unrestricted  intercourse 
or  unremitted  toil  be  a  mischief,  it  is  plain  that  they 
should  be  restrained  and  limited ;  but  it  does  not  follow, 
that  they  should  be  abolished.  If  some  time  for  medi- 
tation is  good,  it  does  not  follow,  that  it  is  better  to 
meditate  aU  the  time.  Some  time  for  sleep,  for  exer- 
cise, for  society,  is  good  ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
whole  time  should  be  devoted  to  either.  It  is  better  to 
restrain  appetite,  than  to  indulge  it  without  limit.  Is 
it,  therefore,  best  of  all  to  annihilate  it  ?  Surely  not. 
It  is  a  question  of  more  or  less,  and  the  just  limit  in 
any  case  can  only  be  determined  by  experience ;  aU 
reasoning  on  it  a  priori  being  futile.  Yet  such  reason- 
ing, and  false  reasoning  too,  was  not  without  its  influ- 
ence in  establishing  and  maintaining  for  a  time  a  sys- 
tem, which  however  humanely  intended,  caused,  in  fact, 
much  disease  of  body  and  of  mind,  tenninating  not 
infrequently  in  death  or  insanity. 

In  1818  an  act  was  passed  by  the  legislature  of 
Pennsylvania  providing  for  the  erection  of  a  peniten- 
tiary at  Pittsburg,  "  on  the  principle  of  solitary  con- 
finement of  the  convicts  as  the  same  now  is  or  hereaf- 
ter may  be  established  by  law ;"  and  directing  that  it 
should  "  be  constructed  on  the  plan  exhibited  to  the 
legislature  by  the  inspectors  of  the  city  and  county  of 
Philadelphia."  This  prison  was  not  completed  so  as 
to  receive  convicts  till  July  1,  1826.     It  was  designed 


32 


for  solitary  confinement  without  labor,  and  when  built 
it  was  found,  that  there  was  perhaps  no  trade  or  occu- 
pation, at  which  a  convict  could  work  in  any  of  the 
cells.  It  was  subsequently  found  also,  that  the  cells 
were  so  constructed  as  to  admit  free  conversation 
among  the  convicts,  and  this  prison  was  taken  down  in 
1833,  and  another  built  in  its  place,  intended  to  pre- 
clude all  intercourse  and  to  provide  for  solitary  labor. 
Yet  even  of  the  first  prison  the  inspectors  say,  in  1829, 
"Constant  confinement  ui  these  cells  is  found  incom- 
patible with  the  health  of  the  convicts,  and  we  have 
found  it  necessary  to  permit  two  or  three  to  be  out 
alternately,  which  gives  an  opportunity  of  intercourse 
to  about  twenty,  that  greatly  diminishes  the  benefit  of 
solitary  confinement." 

The  penitentiary  at  Philadelpliia,  called  the  Eastern, 
and  built  in  conformity  with  an  act  of  March  20,  1821, 
was  originally  intended,  like  that  at  Pittsburg,  for  soli- 
tary confinement  without  labor,  but  was  not  completed 
for  the  reception  of  convicts  till  1829,  in  which  year 
an  act  was  passed  providing  for  the  introduction  of 
solitary  labor  into  the  penitentiaries  of  Pennsylvania ; 
and  since  that  time  this  has  always  formed  a  part  of 
their  system. 

The  progress  of  opinion  and  of  improvement  on  this 
subject  in  the  State  of  New  York  was  not  dissimilar. 
The  attention  of  these  two  great  States  was  early  called 
to  it  from  the  circumstance,  that  their  capitals  rivalling 
each  other,  and  far  surpassing  any  others  in  America, 
in  population,  wealth  and  luxury,  were  the  chief  thea- 


33 


tres  of  temptation  and  of  crime.  Some  distinguished 
citizens  of  New  York  visited  Philadelphia  in  1794,  to 
examine  the  penitentiary  there  and  become  acquainted, 
in  all  its  details,  with  the  practical  operation  of  a  sys- 
tem which  was  declared  to  have  produced  such  instan- 
taneous and  wonderful  results ;  and  on  their  represent- 
ation to  the  legislature  of  the  State  a  new  penitentiary 
was  established  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  1796,  on 
the  same  system,  providing  for  regular  labor  by  day, 
but  not  for  entire  separation  either  by  day  or  by  night. 
A  report  to  the  Senate  of  New  York,  in  1822,  con- 
tains the  following  statements : 

"  For  a  few  years  after  the  first  establishment  of  our  state  prison, 
the  institution  seems  to  have  idealized  all  the  most  sanguine  hopes  of 
its  humane  projectors.  The  name  of  it  inspired  some  dread  among 
criminals,  and  its  government  was  conducted  icith  a  degree  of  zeal 
and  attention  which  often  gives  flattering  success  to  new  institutions, 
but  which  can  hardly  he  expected  to  last  ahoays.  Accordingly  in 
the  report  of  1803,  we  find  that  the  labor  of  the  convicts  came 
within  a  small  ainount  of  the  expense  of  their  sustenance,  and  the 
inspectors  express  an  opinion,  '  that  no  penal  system  in  any  state 
was  less  expensive,  or  more  fully  answered  the  intended  purpose ;' 
but  this  report  contains  the  first  ominous  intimation  that '  there  mil 
soon  be  a  want  of  room.''  * 

"  For  eighteen  successive  years  since  that  time,  the  state  prison 
reports  exhibit  a  distressing  struggle  against  embarrassments  and 
difficulty  of  every  kind.  They  state  the  overwhelming  number  of 
convicts  ;  their  profligate  and  abandoned  character  ;  the  impossi- 
bility of  making  their  labor  maintain  them  ;  pecuniary  embarrass- 

*  Meaning,  of  course,  not  a  want  of  room  for  solitary  confinement,  for  of 
this  there  was  no  thought,  but  for  containing  the  convicts  without  crowd- 
ing them. 


34 

ment  in  the  affairs  of  the  prison  ;  enormous  denniands  upon  the 
public  treasury,  without  the  intermission  of  a  year  ;  new  and  fruit- 
less endeavors  to  make  labor  productive  ;  the  fearful  progress  of 
the  prisoners  in  corrupting  one  another  ;  and  finally,  fires  and  dan- 
gerous insurrections." 

In  1817,  commissioners  appointed  by  a  special  act 
to  examine  the  state  prison,  describe  tbe  prisoners  as 
mutually  corrupting  and  being  corrupted  by  each  other, 
and  as  leaving  the  prison  more  confirmed  in  their 
vicious  propensities  than  when  they  entered  it.  In 
1820,  another  board  of  special  commissioners  admits, 
that  from  some  cause  or  other,  '^ 'penitentiary  pimiskments 
have  entirely  failed  of  producing  the  results  originally  anti- 
cipated from  them  ;"  and  that  crimes  have  multiplied  to 
an  alarming  degree.  The  report  of  the  committee  of 
1822  contains  also  the  following  passages  : 

"  Neither  have  any  exertions  been  omitted  to  remedy  the  defects, 
which  from  time  to  time  have  been  observed,  and  to  furnish  motives 
to  the  prisoners  for  reformation.  Expensive  establishments  have 
been  formed  for  their  employment  at  labor,  by  which  they  would 
acquire  the  means  of  an  honest  livelihood.  Schools  are  established 
in  the  prison  ;  a  very  worthy  and  pious  clergyman  is  employed  for 
their  religious  instruction,  and  rewards  are  reserved  for  the  most 
deserving,  derived  from  part  of  the  avails  of  their  labor.  Classifi- 
cations have  been  introduced  according  to  their  supposed  moral 
characters  ;  and  finally,  laws  have  been  passed  to  exclude  from  the 
prisons  all  who  are  convicted  of  small  offences.  Still  the  number 
of  convicts  is  greater  now  than  at  any  former  period,  and  they  are 
described  in  the  official  report  as  '  desperadoes,^  and  '  the  most 
abandoned  and  profligate  of  the  human  race.'' 

"  Upon  the  whole  view  of  our  state  prison  system  as  hitherto  con- 
ducted, your  committee  are  compelled  to  adopt  the  conclusion,  that 


35 


so  far  as  reformation  is  concerned,  it  has  wholly  failed  ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  that  it  operates  with  alarming  efficacy  to  increase^  dif' 
fuse  and  extend  the  love  of  vice,  and  a  knoivledge  of  the  arts  and 
practices  of  criminality.''''     Report  to  Senate,  44. 

"  Punishment  is  not  revenge  ;  and  rightly  considered,  it  has  less 
reference  to  the  subject  of  it,  than  to  the  spectators.  That  punish- 
ment would  be  most  proper,  which,  with  the  least  suffering  and 
pain  inflicted  upon  the  recipient,  should  make  the  strongest  impres- 
sion upon  the  public  mind. 

"  But  to  make  any  impression  upon  the  minds  of  either  convicts 
or  the  public,  there  must  be  suffering ;  and  to  make  any  adequate 
impression,  such  suffering  as  will  excite  feelings  of  terror  :  and  the 
highest  and  best  purpose  of  punishment  is  only  then  well  answered, 
when  the  punishment  inspires  the  minds  of  observers,  especially  of 
youth,  with  a  salutary  horror  of  the  consequences  of  criminality. 
But  whatever  may  be  the  individual  opinion  of  the  committee,  they 
have  borne  in  mind  that  nothing  can  be  made  effectual,  which  the 
public  sentiment  does  not  sanction.  They  have  further  considered 
the  necessity  of  putting  an  end  to  that  wasteful  course  of  expend- 
iture, which  for  so  many  years  has  exhausted  the  resources  of  the 
state  upon  prisons  and  prisoners  ;  and  they  have  concluded,  that 
more  perhaps  cannot  usefully  be  done  at  present,  than  to  begin  a 
reformation  which  future  legislatures  may  in  their  wisdom  perfect, 
as  time  and  experience  shall  enable  them. 

"  The  most  important  alteration  which  they  have  to  recommend, 
is  the  abandonment  of  labor  as  an  engine  of  punishment,  and  the 
substitution  of  severe  but  short  confinement  in  cells,  with  solitude, 
silence,  darkness,  and  stinted  food  of  coarse  quality.  With  the 
abandonment  of  labor  in  any  prison,  may  be  given  up  a  vast  and 
expensive  list  of  shops,  implements,  inventories  of  stock,  and  bad 
debts,  with  the  expenses  of  a  guard  ;  a  separate  agent  may  be  dis- 
pensed with,  and  a  diminution  of  perhaps  half,  effected  in  the  ex- 
penses of  rations  for  the  prisoners.  The  necessary  expense  of 
keeping  one  thousand  prisoners  in  one  prison,  will  then  be  a  small 
amount  for  each.''"'     Report  to  Senate,  48,  49. 


36 


A  report,  drawn  up  by  men  of  great  distinction  and 
influence,  and  published  by  the  Society  for  Preventing 
Pauperism  in  New  York,  in  1822,  sets  forth  the  senti- 
ments then  generally  entertained  there,  in  the  follow- 
ing language : 

"  Wherever  solitary  confinement  has  been  tried,  it  has  produced 
the  most  powerful  consequences.  In  the  state  prison  of  Philadel- 
phia, offenders  of  the  most  hardened  and  obdurate  description  — 
men  who  entered  the  cells  assigned  them,  with  every  oath  and 
imprecation  that  the  fertility  of  the  English  language  affords  — 
beings,  who  scoffed  at  every  idea  of  repentance  and  humility,  have, 
in  a  few  weeks,  been  reduced,  by  solitary  confinement  and  low 
diet,  to  a  state  of  the  deepest  penitence.  This  may  be  set  down 
as  a  general  result  of  this  kind  of  punishment,  in  that  prison.  In 
the  New  York  penitentiary,  many  striking  instances  of  penitence 
and  submission  have  also  been  afforded.  Where  prisoners  were 
peculiarly  refractory  and  vicious,  they  have  been  placed  in  solitary 
cells,  and  insulated  from  every  human  creature.  Even  the  mes- 
sengers who  carried  them  their  food,  were  enjoined  not  to  utter  a 
syllable  in  the  discharge  of  their  diurnal  duties.  The  most  over- 
whelming consequences  were  the  result.  The  spirit  of  the  offender 
was  subdued,  and  a  temper  of  meekness  and  evidences  of  contri- 
tion displayed.  A  resort  to  this  discipline  never  failed  to  accom- 
plish its  end. 

"  But,  it  will  be  asked,  do  we  recommend  an  entire  suspension 
of  all  labor  in  our  penitentiaries  ?  We  answer  in  the  negative. 
We  are  sensible  that  such  a  proposition  would  not  meet  with  cur- 
rency in  the  different  States,  nor  do  we,  at  present,  perceive  the 
necessity  of  its  general  adoption.  But  the  committee  would  re- 
commend that  solitary  confinement  be  adopted,  to  a  far  greater 
extent,  than  has  heretofore  been  thought  of  in  this  country.  They 
would  separate  this  punishment  into  two  kinds  :  first,  solitary  con- 
finement, without  labor  ;  and  secondly,  solitary  confinement,  with 
labor.     Could  these  two  methods,  in  the  treatment  of  offenders,  be 


37 


universally  and  exclusively  adopted  in  the  various  penitentiaries  of 
this  country,  and  all  intercourse  and  all  kinds  of  communication 
among  prisoners  be  prevented  ;  could  they  be  wholly  precluded 
from  even  seeing  each  other's  faces,  a  new  era  would  soon  appear 
in  the  history  of  our  criminal  laws. 

"  It  appears  to  the  committee,  that  in  all  cases  where  the  con- 
vict is  of  a  desperate  character,  and  where  his  crimes  are  great 
and  manifold,  that  his  imprisonment  should  be  spent  in  complete 
solitary  confinement,  free  from  all  employment,  all  amusement, 
all  pleasant  objects  of  external  contemplation.  Let  his  diet  be 
moderate,  and  suitable  to  a  man  placed  in  a  narrow  compass  for 
the  purpose  of  reflecting  on  his  past  life,  and  on  the  injuries  which 
he  has  done  to  society.  This  would  produce  other  effects  on  ex- 
perienced offenders,  than  imprisonment,  with  several  hundred 
brother  villains,  where  free  intercourse,  by  day  and  by  night,  is 
permitted  ;  where  rich  soups  and  airy  apartments  are  prepared 
for  their  reception,  and  where  a  school  for  guilt  is  established  — 
where  all  the  evil  passions  of  man  flourish  in  rank  and  poisonous 
luxuriance.  Six  months  solitary  confinement,  in  a  cell,  would 
leave  a  deeper  remembrance  of  horror  on  the  mind  of  the  culprit, 
and  inspire  more  dread,  and  prove  a  greater  safeguard  against 
crimes,  than  ten  years  imprisonment  in  our  penitentiaries,  as  they 
now  are  managed.  Who  but  would  shudder  at  the  bare  idea  of 
returning  again  to  the  dreary  abodes  of  wretchedness,  sorrow  and 
despair,  in  the  narrow  limits  of  a  solitary  cell  ?  The  memory  of 
long  and  miserable  days,  and  of  sleepless  and  wearisome  nights 
once  spent  there,  would  come  over  the  mind  like  the  dark  cloud 
of  desolation,  and  terrify  and  arrest  the  guilty  in  the  career  of  out- 
rage. Employment  tends  to  destroy  the  effects  here  pointed  out. 
It  diverts  the  mind,  calls  forth  a  constant  exertion  of  the  physical 
faculties,  and  renders  men  unconscious  of  the  lapse  of  time.  To 
felons,  whose  minds  should  be  broken  on  the  rack  and  the  wheel, 
instead  of  their  bodies,  and  who  can  only  have  their  obstinate  and 
guilty  principles  crushed  and  destroyed  by  severe  treatment ;  no 
kind  of  labor  should  be  given,  while  it  is  intended  that  solitude, 
complete  and  entire  solitude,  should  be  left  to  do  its  effectual  work. 

6 


38 


Sooner  or  later,  this  mode  of  punishment  will  be  adopted  in 
the  United  States.  It  is  founded  on  sound  principles  of  philo- 
sophy, applicable  to  the  nature  of  the  human  species."  Report, 
pp.  51  -  53. 

"  The  other  kind  of  solitary  confinement  might  be  designated 
for  the  most  hardened  felons,  after  they  passed  through  a  sufficient 
course  of  discipline  in  solitude,  without  labor.  Their  first  relief 
should  be  the  application  of  their  time  to  that  sober  industry  which 
they  had  discarded  for  the  devices  of  guilt  and  the  commission  of 
crimes,  before  their  sentence  to  the  penitentiary.  It  would  also  be 
proper  for  another  class  of  criminals,  of  a  lower  grade,  who  might 
.^  be  doomed  to  solitary  imprisonment  and  hard  labor  in  the  first  in- 
stance. It  is  believed,  by  the  committee,  that  the  punishment 
would  be  found  severe,  salutary  and  effective.  A  long  period  of 
solitary  confinement,  without  any  labor,  would  have  an  unfavorable 
effect  on  the  future  ability  of  the  convict  to  be  useful  in  his  peculiar 
pursuits.  His  mechanical  capacity  might  be  impaired  by  long  in- 
ertness.    Report,   54,  55. 

These  passages  sufficiently  indicate  the  opinions 
then  prevalent  in  New  York,  and  which  had  already 
induced  the  legislature  of  that  State  to  pass  an  act 
authorizing  the  inspectors  of  the  Auburn  Prison,  hegim 
in  1816,  and  partly  built  on  the  old  plan,  "  to  alter 
or  change  the  interior  plan  originally  adopted  so  far 
as  to  render  the  same  more  suitable  for  confining  each 
prisoner  in  a  separate  cell."  It  was  not,  however,  the 
purpose  of  the  legislature  of  New  York  to  establish  the 
system  of  solitary  confinement  without  labor  defini- 
tively and  universally,  but  merely  to  apply  it  to  some 
of  the  more  obdurate  offenders,  and  even  this  by  way 
of  experiment. 

An  account  of  the  Auburn  Prison  by  the  keeper. 


39 


published  in   1826,  gives  a  statement  of  this  experi- 
ment and  of  its  results. 

"  The  legislature  passed  an  act,  April  2d,  1821,  directing  the 
inspectors  to  select  a  class  of  convicts  to  be  composed  of  the  oldest 
and  most  heinous  offenders,  and  to  confine  them  constantly  in 
solitary  cells.  At  this  period,  the  legislature  and  public  at  large 
had  become  so  dissatisfied  and  discouraged  with  the  existing  mode 
and  effects  of  penitentiary  punishments,  that  it  was  generally  be- 
lieved, that  unless  a  severer  system  was  adopted,  the  old  'san- 
guinary criminal  code  must  be  restored.  In  dread  of  such  a  result, 
the  legislature  ordered  the  experiment  of  exclusive  solitude,  with- 
out labor,  and  it  is  now  believed,  that  in  avoiding  one  extreme,  an- 
other was  fallen  into. 

"  In  pursuance  of  this  law,  on  the  25th  day  of  December,  1821, 
there  were  selected  eighty  convicts  and  put  into  solitary  cells. 

"  These  convicts  were  kept  remote  from  the  rest,  and  where 
visiters  were  not  allowed  to  go,  but  where  an  officer  remained, 
day  and  night,  as  well  to  guard  against  the  possibility  of  mischief 
or  accident,  as  to  enforce  a  perfect  silence  in  the  cells. 

"  They  were  not  allowed  to  speak,  except  to  the  chaplain  and 
to  inform  the  officer  they  were  sick,  on  which  the  physician  was 
sent  to  examine  them,  and  if  necessarj^,  they  were  removed  to  the 
hospital :  other  convicts  brought  their  food  to  their  cell  doore,  un- 
der the  eye  of  an  officer,  and  carried  away  what  was  necessary. 
Great  care  was  taken  by  whitewashing  and  cleansing,  to  keep 
their  cells  and  clothing  pure  and  wholesome  ;  and  they  were  pre- 
vented from  lying  down  in  the  day  time. 

"  For  a  considerable  time,  we  had  the  most  entire  confidence  in 
the  success  of  this  experiment."     G.  Powers,  on  Auhurn,  p.  32. 

"  A  report  was  made  to  Governor  Yates,  as  directed  by  said 
act ;  and  in  the  summer  of  1823,  he  visited  the  prison,  personally, 
examined  the  solitary  convicts,  and  af\er  consulting  with  the  in- 
spectors and  agent,  determined  to  pardon  them  all,  gradually,  as 
their  names  should  be  sent  him  by  the  inspectors,  except  some, 
whose  sentences  would  soon  expire,  and  a  few  others  to  be  put  to 
labor,  and  which  was  done  accordingly. 


40 


"  These  measures  were  adopted  for  two  reasons  :  First,  that  their 
punishment  was  changed  and  increased  beyond  their  sentence  : 
Secondly,  that  the  health  and  constitutions  of  these  surviving  con- 
victs had  become  alarmingly  impaired. 

"  The  said  act,  of  April  15,  1823,  authorized  courts,  at  their 
discretion,  to  sentence  convicts  for  second  offences  to  solitaiy  con- 
finement not  exceeding  two  years.  But  there  is  not  a  convict  now 
in  this  prison  thus  sentenced. 

"  By  the  close  of  the  year  1823  the  solitary  convicts  were,  prin- 
cipally, released,  and  a  majority  of  them  by  pardon ;  since  which, 
exclusive  solitary  confinement  has  been  discontinued,  though  the 
act  requiring  it  is  not  yet  repealed."     G.  Powers,  p.  35,  36. 

"  A  number  of  these  convicts  became  insane,  while  in  solitude  ; 
one,  so  desperate,  that  he  sprang  from  his  cell,  when  his  door  was 
opened,  and  threw  himself  from  the  fourth  galleiy,  upon  the  pave- 
ment, which  nearly  killed  him,  and  undoubtedly  would  have 
destroyed  his  life,  instantly,  had  not  an  intervening  stove-pipe 
broken  the  force  of  his  fall.  Another  beat  and  mangled  his  head 
against  the  walls  of  his  cell,  until  he  destroyed  one  of  his  eyes. 

"  Nor  was  the  effect  of  this  constant  confinement  more  favor- 
able to  reformation,  than  to  bodily  health.  Of  those  who  survived 
its  shock  upon  their  constitutions,  twelve  have  been  reconvicted 
and  returned  to  this  prison,  whose  average  confinement,  in  soli- 
tude, was  about  twenty  months.  It  is  proper  to  observe,  that 
several  convicts,  of  the  solitary  class,  arc  still  in  prison,  who  were 
released  from  solitary  confinement  and  put  to  labor. 

"  One  of  those  pardoned  committed  a  burglary,  in  this  vicinity, 
the  very  first  night  after  being  released  from  a  long  confinement, 
but  escaped  conviction  on  some  technical  ground. 

"  Some  others  are  known  to  have  so  conducted  as  to  be  a  terror 
in  their  neighborhoods,  who  have  not  been  reconvicted  of  crimes, 
and  not  one  instance  of  reformation,  among  that  class,  has  been 
known."     G.  Powers,  p.  36. 

"  In  view  of  these  facts,  it  cannot  be  considered  singular,  that 
an  entire  change  of  opinion  was  wrought  on  the  subject  of  exclu- 
sive solitary  confinement,  without  labor. 


41 


"  We  now  believe,  that  solitude,  combined  with  labor,  applied 
to  convicts  under  the  rigid  discipline  of  this  prison,  is  much  better 
calculated  to  achieve  the  end  in  view,  and  is,  perhaps,  the  best 
possible  middle  ground  between  the  two  extremes  of  penitentiary 
punishment, 

"  The  diversion  and  exercise  arising  from  labor,  which  the  con- 
victs now  enjoy,  are  certainly  no  more  than  is  indispensable  to 
mental  and  bodily  health :  and  their  earnings  should  have  some 
consideration  with  the  government. 

"  There  is  no  doubt  that  uninterrupted  solitude  tends  to  sour  the 
feelings,  destroy  the  affections,  harden  the  heart,  and  induce  men 
to  cultivate  a  spirit  of  revenge,  or  drive  them  to  despair  ;  although 
such  may  not  always  be  the  effect  upon  martyrs  and  patriots, 
whose  devotion  to  liberty,  or  religion,  may  sustain  their  bodies  and 
minds  in  health  and  vigor  while  suffering  in  a  righteous  cause. 
Yet  solitude,  to  a  certain  extent,  is  indispensable  in  prison  dis- 
cipline. A  degree  of  mental  anguish  and  distress  may  be  neces- 
sary to  humble  and  reform  an  offender  ;  but,  carry  it  too  far,  and 
he  will  become  either  a  savage  in  his  temper  and  feelings,  or  he 
will  sink  in  despair. 

"  With  all  the  privileges  enjoyed  by  the  convicts  in  this  prison, 
insanity  is  no  uncommon  occurrence.  There  are  several  now, 
more  or  less  insane,  who  uniformly  behaved  well  before  their  de- 
rangement, and  who  have  never  incurred  any  corporal  punish- 
ment since  their  confinement. 

"  A  desire,  frankly  to  acknowledge  and  fully  explore  a  danger- 
ous error,  which  we  believe  has  been  fallen  into,  in  carrying  the 
doctrine  of  solitaiy  confinement  entirely  too  far,  is  the  only 
apology  for  the  tedious  length  of  this  article."  G.  Powers. 
pp.  37,  38. 

The  total  failure  of  tliis  experiment  in  the  summer 
of  1823,  led  to  the  establishment  of  what  is  often 
called  here,  the  Auburn  system,  involving  social  labor 
under  strict  inspection,  with  the  prohibition  of  aU  inter- 


42 


course,  during  the  day ;  and  the  solitary  confinement  of 
each  convict  by  night. 

The  experience  of  the  other  States  which  had  adopted 
the  Pennsylvania  system  of  1790,  of  social  labor  with- 
out separation  at  any  time,  was  similar  to  that  of  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  and  the  progress  of  opinion  in 
them  substantially  the  same.  In  all  of  them  this  sys- 
tem was  so  far  superior  to  the  system,  or  rather  to  the 
utter  confusion  previously  existing,  that  it  was  every- 
where, for  a  few  years,  the  theme  of  constant,  and  often 
of  exaggerated  praise,  though  nowhere  followed  by 
such  loud  plaudits,  and  such  high  hopes  as  in  Philadel- 
phia, one  reason  of  which  no  doubt  was,  that  in  the 
smaller  prisons  of  the  less  populous  States,  the  evils 
previously  existing  had  not  been  so  great  or  obvious. 
But  every^vhere,  after  a  longer  experience,  it  was  con- 
demned not  only  as  ineffectual,  but  as  demoralizing  and 
pernicious. 

The  following  extract  is  from  a  report  made  to  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Pauperism  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  in  the  year  1822  : 

"  It  is  unnecessary  to  describe  the  internal  and  external  structure 
of  all  the  penitentiaries  in  the  United  States.  The  description  of 
the  oldest  already  mentioned,  may  be  taken  as  a  data.  The  Vir- 
ginia, Maryland,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont  and  Ohio  prisons  do 
not  deviate  from  them  in  any  particular,  as  to  redeem  the  system 
from  the  errors  which  have  been  enumerated  and  which  we  shall 
illustrate.  The  rooms  are  all  too  large,  and  none  of  the  prisons 
constructed  on  a  plan  to  prevent  the  constant  intercourse  of  crim- 
inals, or  to  divide  and  keep  them  in  distinct  and  proper  classes. 

"  Here  is  one  of  the  fundamental  errors,  that  has  defeated  the 


43 


grand  object  of  the  penitentiary  system  in  the  United  States.  This 
is  the  greatest  of  all  the  defects  that  time  and  experience  have  re- 
vealed in  the  lapse  of  thirty  years.  It  accommodates  the  internal 
police  of  our  prisons,  to  the  ruling  propensities  of  human  nature, 
and  gives  indulgence  to  the  leading  passions  and  inclinations  of 
man.  It  baffles  the  adoption  of  all  other  rules  and  principles  of 
discipline  and  organization,  and  we  might  as  well  attempt  to  raise 
a  superstructure  without  a  foundation  as  to  make  efforts  for  the  per- 
fection of  a  criminal  code,  while  its  first  requisite  is  wholly 
wanting. 

"  The  erroneous  construction  of  our  penitentiaries,  has  not,  until 
recently,  attracted  that  deep  attention  throughout  the  countiy  which 
it  deserves.  For  several  years,  everything  relating  to  the  system 
was  viewed  as  a  matter  of  experiment,  and  so  far  as  it  was  adopted, 
it  proved  so  much  superior  in  its  moral  consequences,  to  the  old 
sanguinary  codes  of  the  colonies,  that  the  gain  was  deemed  matter 
of  congratulation,  although  the  grand  end  was  not  attained. 
Besides,  the  number  of  convicts  was  much  smaller  than  it  is  at 
present,  the  superintendents  were  frequently  changed,  the  chain  of 
observation  was  broken,  and  if  the  sagacity  of  observation  detected 
defects,  they  were  not  so  presented  to  the  legislatures  of  the  dif- 
ferent sections  of  the  Union,  as  to  awaken  their  apprehensions. 
Hence,  one  State  after  another,  each  having  distinct  municipal  laws, 
and  distinct  constitutions  of  government,  went  on  imitating  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York,  in  the  erection  of  prisons,  and  adopted  the 
errors  and  vices  of  the  system,  without  an  anticipation  of  disastrous 
consequences.  The  last  prison  on  the  old  plan  was  erected  at  Cin- 
cinnati, in  the  State  of  Ohio,  in  1816." 

But  in  only  three  other  States  was  the  plan  tried  of 
confinement  in  constant  solitude  without  labor,  and 
then  only  on  a  portion  of  the  prisoners,  and  by  way  of 
experiment :  Maine,  New  Jersey  and  Virginia ;  and 
in  all  thi'ee  its  effects  on  the  bodily  and  mental  health 
of  the  prisoners  led  to  its  abandonment.     It  was  main- 


44 


tained  longest  and  latest  in  New  Jersey.  It  was  sta- 
ted by  the  keeper,  near  the  end  of  November,  1826, 
that  the  cells  were  built  in  1820,  and  that  since  that  year 
seventy-seven  convicts  had  been  sentenced  to  solitary 
confinement  for  eighteen  months,  two  years,  and  one 
three  years  and  six  months,  but  only  one  of  those  dis- 
charged had  returned.  This  last  fact  was  urged  as  a 
reason  for  continuing  tliis  system  in  Pennsylvania.  It 
appeared  however  afterwards,  that  the  convicts  in  soli- 
tary confinement  in  New  Jersey,  could  have  free 
communication  with  those  in  the  opposite  and  con- 
tiguous cells,  so  that  the  longer  continuance  of  this  sys- 
tem there  than  in  any  other  State  is  not  surprising. 

Such  was  the  practical  result  of  the  two  earliest 
great  experiments  made  in  America  for  the  improve- 
ment of  prison  discipline ;  the  first  involving  daily 
labor  without  any  solitude,  and  the  second,  constant 
solitude  without  any  labor ;  and  such  the  progress  of 
opinion  in  relation  to  them.  Both  at  first  deemed 
perfectly  successful,  by  those  who  established,  and 
who  administered  them,  they  were  both,  at  last, 
universally  condemned,  and  were  followed  by  two  dif- 
ferent systems,  that  of  daily  labor  with  solitude  by 
night  only,  originating  at  Auburn,  and  that  of  constant 
solitude  with  labor,  first  established  in  Pennsylvania ; 
whence  their  names.  The  latter  is  now  in  operation  in 
that  State,  and  in  New  Jersey  ;  the  former  in  aU  the 
other  States  in  America,  which  have  any  system  at  all. 

The  single  characteristic  above-mentioned  is  still 
maintained  in  each ;  but  in  other  respects,  many  of  them 


45 


once  deemed  essential,  both  these  systems  have  been 
greatly  modified ;  and  the  changes  have  generally  been 
such  as  tended  to  mitigate  the  original  severity  of  the 
systems.  Thus  in  the  year  1832,  the  official  report  of 
the  warden  of  the  Philadelphia  prison  ascribes  the 
diminution  in  the  number  of  committals  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  nature  and  discipline  of  the  establishment, 
and  particularly  three  important  features  in  it. 

"  1st.  The  entire  separation  of  the  convicts,  both  by  day  and 
night,  and  the  seclusion  from  all  except  their  keepers. 

2d.  Their  being  deprived  from  all  intercourse  or  knowledge  of 
every  kind,  with  either  their  family  or  friends. 

3d.  That  the  friends  of  the  system  would  use  their  endeavors  to 
discourage  the  granting  of  pardons,  so  that  the  punishment  might 
in  all  cases  be  certain ;  and  the  determination  of  the  board  of  in- 
spectors to  refrain  from  recommending  the  governor  to  pardon,  as 
has  been  the  practice  in  the  old  prison."     Fourth  Report. 

And  in  the  report  for  the  year  1836  the  inspectors 
cite,  as  a  correct  account  of  their  system,  a  passage 
from  Mr.  Crawford,  of  which  the  following  sen- 
tences show  the  strictness  of  the  seclusion  then  main- 
tained : 

"  I  do  not  wish  it  to  be  inferred  that  moral  corruption  can  result 
from  intercourse  so  limited,  yet  when  men  are  day  after  day 
thrown  into  the  society  of  each  other,  the  irksomeness  of  imprison- 
ment becomes  impaired,  and  its  terrors  materially  diminished. 
The  Eastern  Penitentiary  imparts  no  such  relief  Of  the  convicts 
with  whom  I  conversed,  many  had  been  previously  confined  in  the 
New  York  and  other  prisons  where  corporal  punishments  were  fre- 
quent ;  but  these  persons  have  declared  that  that  discipline  was 
less  corrective  than  the  restraints  of  continual  solitude.  When  pris- 

7 


46 


oners  are  associated,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  cut  off  all  inter- 
course from  without.  The  arrival  of  new,  and  the  discharge  of 
other  convicts,  form  constant  channels  of  communication.  In  the 
Eastern  Penitentiary  the  separation  from  the  world  is  certain  and 
complete.  So  strict  is  this  seclusion,  that  I  found,  on  conversing 
with  the  prisoners,  that  they  were  not  aware  of  the  existence  of  the 
cholera,  which  had,  but  a  few  months  before,  prevailed  in  Phila- 
delphia. The  exclusion  of  all  knowledge  of  their  friends  is  severely 
felt,  but,  although  every  allusion  to  their  situation  was  accompanied 
by  a  strong  sense  of  the  punishment  to  which  they  were  subjected,  I 
could  perceive  no  angry  or  vindictive  feelings  ;  I  was  indeed  par- 
ticularly struck  by  the  mild  and  subdued  spirit  which  seemed  to 
pervade  the  temper  of  the  convicts,  and  which  is  essentially  pro- 
moted by  reflection,  solitude,  and  the  absence  of  corporal  punish- 
ment."    Eighth  Report,  p.  6. 

Yet  in  the  report  for  1845  the  inspectors  say,  "In- 
tercourse with  the  prisoners  is  constant  and  beneficial, 
and  their  solitude  exists  only  in  the  imaginations  of 
those  who  prefer  to  condemn  before  they  understand 
this  system  of  penitentiary  punishment."  And  they 
quote  with  approbation  tliis  passage  from  a  distin- 
guished writer : 

"  The  separate  system  has  but  one  essential  condition  ;  the  abso- 
lute separation  of  the  prisoners  from  intercourse  of  any  kind  with 
each  other.  On  this  may  be  ingrafted  labor,  instruction,  and  even 
constant  society  with  the  officers  of  the  prison,  or  with  virtuous  i 
persons.  In  fact,  these  have  become,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
component  parts  of  the  system.  In  constant  employment  the  pris 
oner  finds  peace  ;  and  in  the  society  with  which  he  is  indulged 
an  innocent  relaxation  and  a  healthy  influence.  This  is  the  Penn 
sylvania  system."     Seventeenth  Report,  p.  8. 

Provision  has  also  been  made  for  instruction  sinc<l  i  5 


47 


the  first  establishment  of  the  system,  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  moral  instructor  and  school  teacher. 

Changes  no  less  important  have  been  made  in  the 
system  of  social  labor  since  it  was  first  established  at 
Auburn.  The  severity  of  its  punishments  and  the  au- 
thority of  subordinate  ofiicers  to  inflict  them  were  both 
disapproved  from  the  beginning  in  Massachusetts ;  and 
specially  guarded  against  by  express  provisions,  when 
this  system  was  introduced  at  Charlestown. 

But  the  condition  of  this  prison  is  not  a  mere  matter 
of  speculation  to  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  The 
institution  is  entirely  under  their  control.  They  are 
responsible  for  it,  and  are  bound  to  know  not  only  the 
nature  of  the  system,  but  the  manner  in  which  it 
is  administered,  in  order  that  they  may  correct  any 
abuse  or  maladministration ;  and  change  the  system 
itself,  if  they  can  find  a  better.  On  this  subject, 
therefore,  it  may  be  practically  useful  to  enter  into 
some  detail. 

The  prison  at  Charlestown  resembles  a  great  manual- 
labor  school.  The  prisoners  are  not  requhed  to  keep 
their  eyes  fixed  upon  their  work  and  never  to  look  up, 
as  at  Auburn,  but  simply  to  attend  to  their  task  as  in 
a  school.  As  in  a  school  also,  silence  is  required ;  and 
if  this  rule  be  violated,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  master  of 
the  shop  to  report  this,  like  ever}^  other  violation  of 
rule,  to  the  warden.  The  shops  are  spacious,  light  and 
airy,  not  surpassed  and  hardly  equalled,  excepting  in 
such  great  establishments  as  those  of  the  city  of  Lowell. 
The  prisoners  are  engaged  in  active  occupations,  with 


48 


the  exception  of  a  few,  who  from  infirmity  or  other 
special  cause  are  employed  in  sedentary  pursuits. 
These  have  time  allowed  them  for  exercise  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  again  in  the  afternoon,  each  one  of  course 
alone.  Very  few  indeed  of  those  sent  to  the  prison 
are  acquainted  with  any  trade  or  business  whatever,  and 
on  their  admission  the  warden  consults  them  as  to  their 
occupation,  desiiing  that  they  should  choose  an  active 
one  ;  but  not  commanding  even  this.  They  can  hardly 
have  a  preference  strong  enough  to  prevent  their  com- 
plying with  liis  advice,  unless  for  some  particular  rea- 
son; and  accordingly  the  few  instances  of  sedentary 
employment  in  this  prison  may  be  considered  as  excep- 
tions from  the  general  system. 

They  eat  their  meals  in  their  cells,  receiving  them 
in  tin  pans  from  the  kitchen  window  at  the  door  of  the 
prison.  Each  prisoner  takes  a  bath  once  a  week,  ex- 
cepting in  winter,  when  the  batliing  is  regulated  by 
the  physician.  The  mode  of  punishment  is  this.  When- 
ever the  master  of  a  shop  se6s  an  offence  committed  he 
bids  the  offender  stay  out  for  punishment;  and  the 
latter  accordingly,  when  the  other  prisoners  retire  to 
their  cells,  after  prayers  in  the  evening,  remains  at  the 
foot  of  the  staircase,  where  the  warden  hears  the  com- 
plaint and  the  defence  or  explanation  and  awards  the 
punishment.  If  it  is  a  first  offence  or  a  slight  one,  the 
culprit  is  commonly  dismissed  after  an  admonition,  and 
a  promise  on  his  part  to  behave  better  in  future.  If 
punishment  is  deemed  requisite,  it  is  that  of  solitary 
confinement,  with  dimmution  of  food,  unless  in  grave 


49 


cases,  when  a  flogging  is  inflicted  in  the  presence  of 
the  warden.  In  the  course  of  the  last  four  jears  this 
last  punishment  has  been  received  by  forty-five  dif- 
ferent convicts,  by  some  of  them  several  times.  The 
greatest  number  of  lashes  inflicted  on  any  one  during 
that  whole  period  is  fifty ;  and  there  are  only  eight 
persons,  who  in  the  course  of  that  time,  have  received 
more  than  ten  lashes,  some  are  recorded  as  having  re- 
ceived three,  some  two,  and  the  whole  number  inflicted 
during  the  four  3^ears  is  two  hundred  and  fortj^-two. 

Some  benevolent  and  chivalrous  persons  think  the 
infliction  of  a  single  blow  with  a  lash  a  degradation,  to 
which  no  one  should  be  subjected,  and  wliich  must  crush 
the  spirit  and  break  the  heart  of  a  liigh-minded  and 
sensitive  man.  Tliis,  however,  is  matter  of  opinion ; 
and  every  land  and  every  class  will  have  its  own.  It 
is  said,  that  the  introduction  of  this  punishment  into 
the  French  army  would  be  fatal  to  good  order  and  dis- 
cipline; wliile  there  is  the  highest  authority  for  be- 
lieving, that  in  the  English  army,  they  could  not  be 
maintained  without  it.  On  board  our  national  and  our 
merchant  ships,  it  is  the  authorized  and  usual  mode  of 
discipline  ;  and  corporal  punishment  is  permitted  in 
our  schools.  While  this  is  the  case,  so  much  horror  at 
its  use  in  prison  savors  somewhat  of  romance.  Prison- 
ers feel  in  general  on  this  subject  much  like  the  sailor. 
They  do  not  like  a  flogging  ;  but  it  never  enters  into 
their  heads  to  suppose  it  a  stain  upon  their  honor. 
Most  of  them  regard  it  simply  as  the  infliction  of  so 
much  bodily  pain.     There  are  exceptions  no  doubt,  and 


50 


in  such  cases  it  would  not  be  applied  here  without  the 
most  imperative  necessity ;  reference  being  always  had 
to  the  character  of  the  offender  as  well  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  offence  in  this  punishment.  It  is  not  imposed 
for  a  violation  of  the  rule  of  silence,  or  any  other  rule 
of  mere  prison  discipline,  nor  for  any  act  which  would 
not  be  an  offence  out  of  the  prison.  Perhaps  the  case 
of  striking  another  convict  is  as  common  as  any  one 
wliich  is  thus  punished. 

The  perfect  coolness  with  which  Englishmen,  really 
benevolent,  speak  of  dozens,  and  in  the  army  and  navy 
of  hundreds  of  lashes  for  a  single  offence,  utterly 
astounds  us  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  reminds 
us  of  what  we  have  heard  about  the  tortures  of  the  In- 
quisition. Even  in  the  prison  at  ]\Iillbank,  near  London, 
founded  by  philanthropy  and  administered  with  the 
kindest  feelings,  the  greatest  and  most  frequent  pun- 
ishment of  this  land  inflicted  on  adults  during  the  year 
1845,  was  thirty-six  lashes  and  the  least  twenty-four ; 
while  on  boys  the  greatest  was  thirty-six,  the  most  fre- 
quent twenty-four,  and  the  very  least  eleven  on  a  boy 
of  ten  years  old,  no  less  a  number  than  sixteen  being 
given  in  any  other  case ;  so  that  the  least  punishment 
of  this  kind  inflicted  on  a  child  at  ^Millbank  was  greater 
than  the  greatest  wliich  the  warden  of  the  prison  here 
is  authorized  by  law  to  inflict  upon  the  worst  offender 
for  the  worst  offence.  The  number  of  punishments  in 
Chartestown,  mcluding  the  mildest,  is  said  not  to  ex- 
ceed on  an  average  one  a  day. 

There  are  several  flower-pots  in  the  windows  of  some 


61 


of  the  worksliops,  a  convict  being  allowed  to  keep  one 
or  more  of  these  with  permission  of  the  warden.  By 
the  same  permission  also  they  cultivate  what  they  call 
gardens,  of  which  there  are  now  more  than  a  hundred. 
These  are  boxes  made  of  refuse  boards  a  few  feet 
square,  filled  with  earth  in  which  they  raise  tomatos, 
lettuce,  cucumbers,  onions  and  other  vegetables,  for 
their  own  use.  To  attend  to  these  they  are  allowed  by 
the  master  of  the  shop  to  quit  their  work  for  a  few  min- 
utes at  a  time.  Such  of  these  vegetables  as  do  not 
need  cooking,  the  convict  takes  with  him  to  his  cell. 
Those  requiring  it  he  ties  up  in  a  small  linen  bag, 
which  he  marks  and  gives  to  one  of  the  cooks,  who 
puts  it,  at  the  proper  time,  having  reference  to  its  con- 
tents, into  one  of  the  caldrons  where  the  dinner  is  cook- 
ing, and  when  it  is  ready  places  it  in  the  pan  of  the 
convict,  to  whom  it  belongs.  "  This  gives  some  trouble, 
but  it  pleases  the  men,"  was  the  remark  of  the  warden 
on  this  subject. 

In  church  on  Sunday  and  at  evening  prayers  during 
the  week  they  have  sacred  music,  vocal  and  instru- 
mental in  the  chapel ;  the  instruments  belonging  to 
the  prisoners,  being  obtained  from  their  friends,  to 
whom  the  warden  writes  at  their  request;  or  purchased 
from  funds,  which  they  may  have  had  on  entering  the 
prison,  and  which  are  always  deposited  in  the  warden's 
hands,  who  buys  for  them  any  instrument  or  book  they 
wish,  if  he  thinks  it  proper  for  them  to  have  it.  Those, 
who  choose  to  do  so,  pass  one  hour  every  Saturday 
afternoon  in  the  chapel,  in  the  practice  of  music. 


52 

A  society  is  established  in  the  prison  for  moral  im- 
provement and  mutual  aid,  of  which  the  warden  is 
president,  with  express  authority  to  regulate  and  con- 
trol all  its  proceedings.  Any  prisoner  may  become  a 
member,  unless  the  president  object,  by  signing  the 
constitution,  which  contains  a  formal  promise  to  lead 
an  orderly  and  virtuous  life,  and  never  to  taste  any  in- 
toxicating liquor  after  his  discharge.  This  society 
holds  its  meetings  once  a  fortnight ;  and  at  each  meet- 
ing some  question  is  statea  for  discussion  at  the  next. 
A  committee  of  conference  is  appointed  to  consider  the 
best  means  of  promoting  the  great  objects  of  the  society, 
consisting  of  the  president,  the  vice-president,  who  is 
the  chaplain  of  the  prison,  the  secretary,  who  is  its 
clerk,  and  six  convicts  chosen  by  a  majority  of  the 
members,  and  approved  by  the  president. 

About  three-fourths  of  the  prisoners  now  belong  to 
this  society.  It  is  not  designed  here  to  ascribe  too 
much  importance  to  it;  still  less  to  recommend  its 
universal  adoption.  No  doubt  a  somewhat  correct 
tone  of  opinion  and  of  feeling  must  be  established  in 
a  prison,  before  it  can  properly  be  introduced.  It  is 
founded  on  the  consideration,  that  convicts  are  to  re- 
turn to  the  society  of  men  not  so  totally  different  from 
themselves,  as  some  would  represent ;  and  on  the  be- 
lief, that  though  erring  and  criminal  men,  they  are  not 
such  incarnate  demons,  that  every  word  is  infectious, 
and  every  touch  contamination ;  but  that  on  the  con- 
trary all  such  iutercourse  among  them,  as  does  not  tend 
to  corrupt  them,  to  produce  disorder  or  to  interrupt 


63 


their  labor ;  such  as  takes  place  in  the  presence  and 
within  hearing  of  the  officers,  engaging  the  sympathies 
and  occupying  and  interesting  the  minds  of  the  pris- 
oners, is  not  only  harmless,  but  humanizing  and  bene- 
ficial. 

The  prisoners  have  about  five  hours  a  day  for  read- 
ing and  writing  in  their  cells,  an  hour  being  allowed 
for  breakfast,  and  an  hour  for  dinner,  which  solitary 
meals  are  briefly  despatched,  and  the  prison  kept 
lighted  in  winter  till  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Each 
prisoner  is  furnished  with  a  slate  and  pencil,  and  is 
taught  and  encouraged  to  write  and  cipher.  There  is 
a  Sunday  school  at  which  about  forty  gentlemen  in 
the  neighborhood  attend  and  hear  those,  who  choose 
to  do  so,  read  from  the  bible,  in  small  classes,  teaching 
those  to  read,  who  cannot  do  it.  These  last  are  mostly 
of  course  from  other  places,  for  natives  of  Massachu- 
setts, grown  up  and  not  knowing  how  to  read  and 
write,  are  not  common  at  the  present  day  even  in  our 
prisons.  In  most  cases,  however,  there  is  much  room 
for  improvement. 

There  is  a  library  in  the  prison,  to  the  support  and 
increase  of  which  one  hundred  dollars  a  year  is  ap- 
propriated from  the  earnings  of  the  prison  by  law,  and 
books  are  taken  out  and  returned  by  the  convicts  once 
a  week.  Many  prisoners  also  have  books  of  their  own 
in  their  cells,  purchased  from  their  money  in  the 
warden's  hands.  One  of  them  is  now  reading  Latin 
and  another  studying  Greek. 

About  a  year  ago  a  clergyman  from  Alton,  in  Illinois, 


54 


visited  the  prison,  and  was  requested  by  the  chaplain 
to  perform  the  evening  service ;  after  which  he  made  a 
short  addi-ess  to  the  prisoners,  a  mark  of  attention  from 
a  stranger,  which  always  gives  them  pleasure.     He  ex- 
pressed Ms  high  gratification  with  the  neatness,  order, 
and  contentment  which  prevailed  there,  and  his  partic- 
ular delight  in  seeing  the  library,  obser-^dng  that  they 
were  much  better  off  in  this  respect,  than  the  inmates 
of  the  State  Prison  at  Alton,  who  had  no  books  at  alL 
The  next  day,  as  the  chaplain  was  walking  thi'ough 
one  of  the  workshops,  a  prisoner  having  asked  leave  to 
quit  his  work  and  speak  to  him,  told  him,  that  he  had 
some  books,  which  he  could  spare,  and  should  like  to 
send  to  the  prisoners  at  Alton,  if  permitted,  and  so  had 
some  of  his  shopmates.     The  chaplain,  having  conferred 
with  the  warden,  stated  in  the  chapel,  after  evening 
prayers,  that  such  an  application  had  been  made  to 
him,  and  added,  that  if  any  prisoner  had  books  which 
he  wished  to  send  to  the  Alton  prison,  he  might  leave 
them  in  the  adjoining  room,  on  coming  to  prayers  the 
next  morning.     He  also  sent  word  to  his  friend  the 
clergyman,  that  if  he  would  call  at  the  prison  the  next 
day,  he  would  find  some  books  for  Alton.     The  Rev- 
erend gentleman  went  accordingly,  and  took  with  him 
a  large  silk  handkerchief  to  caiTy  off  the  books.     What 
was  his  astonishment  to  find  m  the  room  adjoining  the 
chapel  more  than  four  hundred  bound  volumes,  besides 
tracts  and  pamphlets !     The  silk  handkerchief  would 
not  do  ;  and  the  prisoners  requested  permission  to  make 
boxes  to  pack  the  books  in. 


55 


The  physician  of  the  prison  and  two  other  eminent 
physicians,  not  connected  with  it,  constitute  a  conunis- 
sion  to  inquire  into  all  cases  of  suspected  derangement, 
and  on  their  certificate  that  it  exists,  the  patient  is  re- 
moved to  the  State  Hospital  for  Lunatics  at  Worcester. 

No  females  are  sent  to  this  prison,  nor  males  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  nor  any  one  for  a  shorter  term 
than  a  year.  One  of  the  first  discouragements  of  the 
hope,  that  this  new  system  of  prison  discipline  might 
be  of  great  and  permanent  benefit  to  society,  was  the 
difficulty  of  finding  employment  for  the  prisoners  after 
their  discharge.  The  experience  of  those  who  had  em- 
ployed convicts  discharged  from  the  State  Prison  under 
the  former  system  made  this  a  hard  task.  It  was  early 
proposed  as  a  remedy  for  this  evil,  to  establish  an  insti- 
tution in  some  agricultural  part  of  the  State,  where 
persons  leaving  the  prison  might  have  occupation  till 
they  could  find  some  other  employment.  Many  en- 
lightened and  benevolent  men  zealously  supported  this 
project ;  but  it  met  with  some  objections,  one  of  wliich 
was,  that  such  persons  could  not  live  together  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  having  free  intercourse  with  each 
other,  however  much  they  might  be  supposed  to  be 
reformed,  without  danger  of  great  abuses.  A  single 
corrupt  individual  among  them  corrupting  others,  each 
of  whom  would  become  a  new  corrupter,  must  soon 
reproduce  all  the  evils  of  the  older  prisons.  Another 
objection  was,  that  any  stranger  seeking  accomplices 
for  the  commission  of  some  new  crime,  would  imme- 
diately resort  to  this  place,  in  the  confidence  that  he 


56 

mio-ht  easily  seduce  some  one  or  other  of  its  inmates, 
and  would  sometimes  no  doubt  be  successful.  The  only 
means  of  avoiding  these  evils  would  be  to  prohibit 
their  intercourse  with  each  other  and  with  strangers, 
and  in  short  to  subject  them  to  regulations  similar  to 
those  of  the  prison  itself  To  these  they  would  not 
voluntarily  submit.  Nor  would  the  State  compel  them 
to  do  so  by  law,  since  this  would  be  only  prolonging 
their  imprisonment,  and  in  the  end  they  would  come 
out  no  better  fitted  for  siociety,  and  no  more  likely  to 
obtain  employment  than  when  they  left  the  prison. 
The  difficulty  of  finding  occupation  was  indeed  great, 
but  it  was  not  insuperable,  for  some  had  found  it ;  and 
this  difficulty  would  constantly  diminish  as  it  became 
generally  known,  that  prisoners  were  more  frequently 
reformed  under  the  new  system  of  discipline  than 
under  the  old.  In  the  meantime,  and  until  public  opin- 
ion, so  far  as  it  was  erroneous  on  this  point,  should 
be  enlightened  and  corrected,  some  inconvenience  might 
be  suffered ;  but  it  would  be  temporary,  and  far  less 
than  the  permanent  mischief  likely  to  result  from  the 
plan  proposed. 

Notwithstanding  these  objections,  the  scheme  was 
put  in  operation,  but  abandoned  after  a  few  years  trial. 
If  on  account  of  these  objections,  this  shows  their 
validity.  If  on  any  other  account,  it  shows  that  there 
are  other  objections,  than  those  anticipated,  fatal  to  the 
project. 

The  course  now  pursued  in  aid  of  discharged  con- 
victs seems  to  promise  better  things.     An  agent  is  ap- 


57 


pointed  by  the  State,  whose  duty  it  is  "  to  counsel  such 
discharged  convicts,  as  may  seek  his  aid,  and  to  take 
such  measures  to  procure  employment  for  such  of  them 
as  may  desire  it,  by  corresponding  with  persons  in  agri- 
cultural and  mechanical  pursuits,  and  with  benevolent 
individuals  and  associations  as  he  may  deem  proper 
and  expedient."     Lmv  of  March  22,  1845. 

Since  this  law  was  passed,  a  voluntary  association 
has  been  formed  here,  called  the  "  Boston  Society  in  Aid 
of  Discharged  Convicts,"  which  entirely  cooperates  with 
the  present  agent  of  the  State,  and  indeed  has  appointed 
him  agent  of  the  Society  also.  His  mode  of  proceed- 
ing is  this.  Knowing  when  any  convicts  are  about  to 
be  discharged,  he  visits  them  in  the  prison,  some  time 
before  and  asks,  whether  they  wish  him  to  find  places 
for  them  or  aid  them  in  any  way,  and  if  they 
want  places,  at  what  business,  and  in  what  part  of  the 
country.  A  few  will  probably  have  already  obtained 
places  from  the  contractors ;  many  state  that  they  are 
going  back  to  their  friends,  and  sometimes  aid  is  asked 
for  this  purpose,  and  many  want  employment.  There 
have  yet  been  only  two  instances  of  unexplained  refusal 
of  assistance.  He  requests  every  one  who  wishes  Ms  help 
to  call  on  him  immediately  on  leaving  the  prison,  and  in 
the  meantime  exerts  himself  to  supply  their  wants ; 
nor  has  he  ever  once  failed  to  find  for  every  one  who 
asked  it,  employment  at  the  work  he  wished,  and  in  the 
part  of  the  country  he  wished,  at  from  one  dollar  to 
one  dollar  and  three  quarters  per  day,  as  soon  as  he  left 
the  prison  or  shortly  after  j  some  of  the  stone  cutters 


58 


have  earned  two  dollars  and  a  half  per  day.  Those  for 
whom  a  place  is  not  ready  immediately  on  their  dis- 
charge, are  supplied  with  board  and  lodging  in  a  re- 
spectable family,  at  the  expense  of  the  Society,  till  one 
can  be  found.  This  generally  happens  in  a  few  days. 
There  is  only  one  instance  of  its  not  being  done  within 
a  fortnight. 

This  plan  has  been  too  short  a  time  in  operation  to 
authorize  any  accurate  estimate  of  the  extent  and  value 
of  its  practical  results.  It  should  however  be  stated, 
that  since  the  first  project  was  suggested  for  establish- 
ing an  asylum  for  discharged  convicts,  there  has  been  a 
constant  and  very  marked  change  of  public  opinion  in 
this  vicinity  with  regard  to  the  employment  of  them ; 
and  this  must  be  deemed  far  stronger  evidence  of  the 
influence  of  this  system  in  producing  reformation  than 
all  the  tables  of  relapses  and  recomdctions  that  could 
be  produced. 

One  respectable  cabinet  maker  informs  me  that 
within  ten  or  twelve  years  past,  from  forty  to  fifty  dis- 
charged convicts,  whom  he  knew  to  have  learned  their 
trade  in  the  State  Prison  here,  have  been  employed  in 
his  establishment,  and  that  he  never  has  discharged  one 
of  them  for  bad  conduct ;  nor  ever  wished  to  get  rid  of 
more  than  two  or  three,  who  left  him  of  their  own  ac- 
cord. It  should  be  stated,  that  each  prisoner,  on  his 
discharge  is  furnished  with  a  new  suit  of  good  clothes, 
and  with  five  dollars  in  money,  from  the  earnings  of 
the  prison. 

While,  however,  it  is  proper  that  all  these  details 


69 


should  be  known  here,  they  are  not  to  he  considered  as 
essential  to  the  system.  Besides  kindness,  good  order 
and  moral  and  religious  instruction,  which  belong 
equally  to  every  humane  system,  there  is  nothing  es- 
sential to  this,  excepting  social  labor  with  the  injunc- 
tion of  silence,  under  strict  supervision  during  the  day, 
and  solitary  confinement  in  the  intervals  of  instruction 
and  labor. 

But  this  then,  it  will  be  said,  is  not  the  Auburn 
system.  So  be  it.  No  matter  for  the  name.  It  has 
generally  been  called  so  here,  because  this  peculiar 
combination  of  labor  and  solitude  was  borrowed  di- 
rectly from  that  system,  as  the  essential  part  of  it  and 
the  best ;  and  it  was  wished  to  give  credit  where  it 
was  due.  Those,  who  still  think  that  this  is  the 
essence  of  that  system ;  and  that  the  severe  punish- 
ments and  other  peculiarities  introduced  with  it  at 
Auburn,  are  only  accessories,  will  probably  still  call  it 
so.  Those,  who  deem  them  so  essential  that  they  are 
inseparable  from  the  name,  may  give  the  system  estab- 
lished here  what  name  they  please.  Let  them  call  it 
the  system  of  John  Howard,  for  such,  in  substance 
and  effect  it  is.  After  running  a  round  of  unsuccess- 
ful experiments  for  more  than  half  a  century,  we  have 
come  back  to  him  at  last. 

In  his  work  on  Lazarettos  is  his  weU-considered  plan 
for  the  prison,  which  he  wished  to  see  established, 
containing  a  chapel  for  religious  services  in  common, 
large  workshops  for  labor  in  common,  and  small  cells 
for  solitary  confinement,  at  aU  other  times.     The  act 


60 

of  Parliament  of  1779,  for  erecting  such  a  prison  near 
London  was  drawn  up,  in  entire  conformity  with  the 
plans  and  views  of  Mr.  Howard  by  his  friend  Sir 
William  Blackstone,  and  Mr.  Eden,  afterwards  Lord 
Auckland. 

"  Mr.  Howard  speaks  of  this  act  as  having  been  '  a  work  of 
long  and  continued  labor  and  inquiry,'  and  Sir  W.  Blackstone 
states  the  prmcipal  objects  of  it  to  have  been  '  by  sobriety,  clean- 
liness and  medical  assistance,  by  a  regular  series  of  labor ^  hy 
solitary  confinement  during  tho  intervals  of  work,  and  by  due 
relit^ious  instruction,  to  preserve  and  amend  the  health  of  the  un- 
happy offenders,  to  inure  them  to  habits  of  industry,  to  guard 
them  from  pernicious  company,  to  accustom  them  to  serious 
reflection,  and  to  teach  them  both  the  principles  and  practice 
of  every  Christian  and  moral  duty.'  "  Holford  on  Millbank, 
p.  2. 

It  is  true,  that  the  obligation  of  silence  is  not  here 
mentioned.  But  the  system  could  not  have  been  put 
in  operation,  without  its  being  at  once  perceived,  that 
for  the  sake  of  order  and  of  diligence,  there  was  the 
same  absolute  necessity  for  requiring  silence  during 
the  hours  of  labor,  as  in  a  great  and  well-regulated 
school  during  the  hours  of  study.  And  in  point  of 
fact,  in  those  prisons  in  England,  where  social  labor 
by  day  is  accompanied  with  solitude  at  night,  no  con- 
versation is  permitted  during  the  time  of  labor.  In 
the  prison  for  juvenile  offenders  at  Parkhurst,  the  boys 
are  allowed  to  converse  with  each  other  while  walking 
in  the  yards,  but  not  when  at  work  or  in  school.  In 
the  prison  at  JMillbank,  Avhere  persons  under  twenty 
years  of  age  are  employed  in  social  labor,  they  may 


61 


talk  together  at  meal  times,  or  when  exercising ;  but 
never  while  at  work.  And  this  rule  is  strictly  en- 
forced* It  would  have  been  so  and  must  have  been  so 
by  Howard,  and  as  he  required  solitary  confinement  in 
all  the  intervals  of  work,  thinking,  no  doubt,  that 
vigorous  labor  was  exercise  enough,  no  conversation  at 
all  could  have  been  permitted,  and  his  system  must 
have  been  in  everything  essential,  exactly  similar  to 
that  now  established  in  Charlestown. 

The  systems  usually  designated  in  America  by  the 
names  of  Pennsylvania  and  Auburn,  have  undergone 
such  important  changes  and  modifications  in  different 
times  and  places,  that  those  best  acquainted  with  the 
facts,  can  form  no  estimate  of  the  justice  of  any  state- 
ment made  in  relation  to  them,  without  knowing  the 
exact  time  and  place  to  which  it  refers.  I  shall  not, 
however,  dwell  upon  these  changes,  nor  discuss  them 
at  all,  except  in  so  far  as  they  may  appear  to  affect 
the  question  of  social  and  solitary  labor,  to  which  I 
shall  strictly  confine  myself 

In  considering  this  question,  I  shall  endeavor  to 
illustrate  my  remarks  mainly  by  the  experience  of  the 
prisons  of  Philadelphia  and  Charlestown ;  and  this, 

1.  Because  they  may  be  regarded  as  the  model 
prisons  here  of  their  respective  systems,  or  certainly  in- 
ferior to  none  ;  and  the  experience  of  those  where  any 
material  abuse  is  known  or  suspected  to  exist,  would 
have  little  weight;  and  is  in  truth   of  little  worth, 

*  R.  L.  C.  1847,  p.  212. 


62 


since  it  is  rarely  possible  to  distinguish  the  effects  of 
the  system  itself  from  those  of  its  maladministration. 

2.  Because  they  resemble  each  other  in  other  re- 
spects more  than  anj^  other  two  prisons  in  America, 
which  in  this  respect  differ ;  as  for  example  in  the 
period,  during  which  they  have  been  in  full  practical 
operation,  that  is,  since  1829  ;  —  in  the  number  of  their 
white  prisoners ;  —  in  the  mildness  of  their  punish- 
ments, and  generally  in  the  benevolent  spirit  in  which 
they  have  been  administered  ;  —  and  in  the  important 
particulars,  that  both  are  near  large  cities,  in  which 
the  average  rates  of  mortality  at  large,  and,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  learn,  the  proportions  of  insane  in 
the  whole  population,  are  not  materially  different ;  — 
that  both  are  governed  by  intelligent  and  able  officers, 
who  command  the  public  confidence ;  —  that  both  are 
under  the  watchful  observation  of  friendly  societies, 
anxious  to  contribute  by  all  possible  means  to  their 
improvement ;  —  and  that  both  are  within  the  view  of 
large,  enlightened  and  benevolent  communities,  who, 
upon  the  slightest  suspicion,  would  be  prompt,  no 
doubt,  to  investigate  and  correct  every  abuse  without 
fear  or  favor. 

The  only  object,  and  the  only  justification  of  pun- 
ishment by  law  is  its  tendency  to  promote  the  secur- 
ity of  society  by  preventing,  as  far  as  may  be,  the 
recuiTence  of  crimes ;  and  to  this  end  it  acts  as  a 
warning  to  deter  all  men  from  committing  them,  and 
seeks  at  the  same  time,  by  reforming  the  culprit,  to 
prevent  their  repetition  by  him.     In  former  times  the 


6: 


vague  idea,  that  tlie  warning  might  influence  all,  while 
the  reformation  would  act  on  one  alone,  led  no  doubt 
to  a  great  neglect  of  the  latter  result  as  comparatively 
unimportant ;  no  regard  being  had  apparently  to  the 
consideration,  that  while  it  is  true  that  the  warning 
may  deter  many,  it  is  no  less  true,  that  the  convict, 
returning  to  society  without  reformation,  may  corrupt 
many.    In  those  days  a  prison  was  designed  as  a  place 
of  punishment  merely,  a  terror  to  evil-doers.      Some 
benevolent  men  would  now  represent  it  as  simply  a 
school  for  improvement,  an  asylum  and  a  moral  hospi- 
tal for  guilt.     It  should  be  exclusively  neither ;  but 
seek  at  once  to  punish  and  to  reform,  which  are  by 
no  means   incompatible   under   the  administration  of 
a  mild  but  firm  and  manly  discipline,  equally  removed 
from  unnecessary  sternness  and  from  sickly  sensibility. 
So  far  as  it  operates  merely  by  example  to  deter 
men  from  crime,  no  sufficient  data  appear  at  present  to 
determine  whether  there  is  any  and  what  difference  in 
this  respect  between  the  influence  of  social  and  that  of 
solitary  labor.     A  recent  work  indeed,  in  arg-uing  this 
question,  and  giving  the  preference  to  the  latter,  pre- 
sents the  following  picture : 

"  Let  us  suppose,  that,  out  of  the  six  thousand  visitors  to  the 
Charlestown  prison  last  year,  fifty  were  men  who  were  conscious 
that  their  own  course  of  life  subjected  them  to  the  danger  of  be- 
coming inmates ;  —  who  came  for  the  purpose  of  knowing  what 
the  prison  really  was,  —  or  to  see  an  acquaintance  who  had  been 
more  unlucky  than  themselves,  and  had  been  caught.  They  ex- 
amine everything  closely  ;  they  see  that  the  convicts  are  in  full 
health,  busily  working  at  cleanly  and  healthy  occupations,  in  large 


64 


and  comfortable  shops  ;  they  see  them  take  their  full  allowance  of 
bread  and  meat  and  go  into  a  small  but  clean  and  comfortable  cell 
to  eat  their  meals.  It  is  very  likely  that  some  of  them  would  say, 
— '  Well !  after  all,  this  is  not  so  very  dreadful !  There  's  my  old 
crony,  Tom,  or  Bill,  fat  and  hearty  ;  he  has  plenty  to  eat,  good 
clothing  and  lodging,  and  plenty  of  company  !  If  worst  comes  to 
worst,  I  can  bear  it  as  well  as  he  can.'  On  the  other  hand,  sup- 
pose such  men  are  led  by  curiosity  to  visit  the  Philadelphia  prison. 
They  pass  its  gloomy  portals,  and  walk  up  and  down  the  long  stone 
galleries  to  which  all  visitors  are  admitted.  On  each  side  are  the 
low  iron  doors  that  secure  the  cells  and  hide  the  prisoners  from  the 
view.  From  some  there  comes  no  sound  ;  the  dread  stillness  may, 
for  aught  the  visitor  knows,  be  that  of  death.  From  another  cell 
is  heard  a  faint  noise  of  a  hammer  or  a  shuttle  ;  and  it  may  be  that 
there  is  shut  up  in  it  a  feeble,  pallid  wretch,  worn  out  with  labor, 
solitude  and  suffering. 

"  We  believe  that  the  same  principles  which  operate  in  the 
human  mind,  and  make  executions  in  the  privacy  of  the  jail-yard 
more  effectual  in  preventing  crime  than  those  in  the  public  square, 
make  the  mysterious  fate  of  the  convict  committed  to  a  Separate- 
system  prison  more  dreaded  than  the  more  certainly  known  amount 
of  suffering  of  one  who  is  committed  to  a  Congregate  prison." 

5.  G.  Howe  on  Prison  Discipline,  p.  23. 

Unfortunately,  however,  for  this  argument,  the  same 
work,  in  attempting  to  prove  that  the  social  system  is 
more  cruel  and  severe  than  the  solitary,  makes  a  very 
different  statement. 

"  The  evil  effects  of  thus  laboring  in  common,  in  the  Congregate 
prisons,  are  aggravated  by  the  severity  of  the  labor  which  is  requisite 
in  order  to  prevent,  as  much  as  is  possible,  communication  among 
the  workmen. 

"  How  many  a  hapless  convict,  after  a  day  of  severe  drudgery, 
when  he  is  locked  up  in  his  narrow  and  cheerless  cell  at  night, 
must,  as  he  wipes  the  sweat  from  his  brow,  curse  the  labor  which 


65 


to  him  is  productive  only  of  fatigue,  made  more  painful  by  the 
thought  that  all  the  profits  go  to  a  sordid  contractor  or  a  sordid 
government !  Urged  to  labor  by  the  dread  of  the  lash,  and  de- 
prived of  that  which  sweetens  it,  he  will  be  apt  to  detest  it ;  and 
there  are  many  who  will  firmly  believe  that  the  courts,  as  the  or- 
gans of  government,  purposely  gave  them  long  sentences  that  more 
might  be  made  out  of  them. 

"  Contrast  the  situation  of  men,  thus  driven  in  gangs  to  work, 
exposed  to  the  gaze  of  every  visitor,  with  the  condition  of  a  pris- 
oner under  the  Separate  system,  who  is  shut  up  in  a  room  as  large, 
perhaps,  as  the  one  he  was  accustomed  to  at  home.  He  has  his 
loom  or  his  shoe-bench  at  hand ;  he  is  at  liberty  to  work  as  long 
as  he  pleases,  to  rest  when  he  is  tired,  to  lay  down  his  hammer 
and  take  vip  a  book  ;  he  knows,  that  if  he  does  more  than  a  fair 
day's  work,  the  over-stint  will  be  added  to  the  small  sum  already 
placed  to  his  credit,  and  be  at  his  disposal  when  he  goes  out.  Such 
a  man  learns  to  prefer  work  to  idleness  ;  he  forms  habits  of  volun- 
tary labor  ;  he  sees  in  the  work  provided  for  him  a  proof  of 
the  kindness  of  his  keepers  ;  and,  knowing  that  the  government 
makes  nothing  out  of  him,  will  not  suspect  it  of  cupidity  or 
cruelty."  *    p.  45. 

Tliese  opposite  statements  cannot  both  be  unvar- 
nisbed  representations  of  tbe  truth.  In  reality  neither 
of  them  is  entitled  to  that  credit.  Among  us  neither 
of  these  modes  of  labor  can  render  a  prison  a  tolerable 
residence,  or  an}H:hing  but  a  terror  to  evil-doers  on 
the  one  hand ;  and  neither,  on  the  other,  can  inspire 
them  with  so  much  terror  as  to  prevent  the  commission 
of  crimes.  As  to  the  degree  of  their  relative  influence 
in  this  respect,  it  is  but  a  question  of  more  or  less ;  and 

*  "  In  some  of  these  remarks  we  have  spoken  of  the  Congregate  system 
rather  as  it  is  actually  administered,  and  must  allow  that  it  admits  of  ben- 
eficial modifications  without  departure  from  its  principles." 


66 

wbcUicr  there  is  any  material  dilTerence,  or  any  differ- 
ence at  all  between  them  in  practice,  can  be  determined 
by  nothing  but  close  and  long-continued  observation. 

The  idea,  that  while  the  inmates  of  a  separate  sys- 
tem prison  are  in  truth  so  very  comfortable,  and  wliile 
so  much  pains  are  taken  to  make  this  fact  universally 
known,  those  who  visit  it,  or  the  far  greater  number, 
who  do  not,  will  indulge  their  imaginations  in  conjur- 
ing up  phantoms  of  the  sufferings  endured  in  those 
solitary  cells,  and  be  deterred  from  guilt  by  such  phan- 
toms, which  they  must  know  to  be  unreal,  seems  too 
fanciful  to  be  relied  on  as  a  practical  security  against 
crimes.  The  case  is  not  at  all  analogous  to  that  of 
public  and  private  executions.  There  is  no  mystery 
and  no  conjecture  about  what  happens  in  the  latter ; 
and  the  real  objection  to  the  former  is  that  it  brings 
together  a  great  crowd  containing  an  unusual  propor- 
tion of  the  worst  members  of  society,  exposed  to  all 
the  temptations  and  to  all  the  corruption  incident  to 
such  a  crowd ;  and  diminishes  their  natural  repugnance 
to  commit  the  worst  of  crimes,  by  familiarizing  them 
with  the  sight  of  death. 

There  seems  to  be  a  similar  inconsistency  between 
the  passages  which  maintain  that  in  the  system  of  social 
labor,  there  is  and  must  necessarily  be  free  communi- 
cation among  the  convicts,  and  those  which  allege  that 
they  suffer  the  punishment  of  Tantalus  in  being  cut  off 
from  all  communication.  Both  statements  are  grossly 
exaggerated.  Undoubtedly  when  the  officer's  back  is 
turned,  prisoners  may  exchange  a  glance  or  a  word,  but 


67 


no  sustained  conversation,  no  narrative  of  past  achieve- 
mentSj  nor  projects  for  new  ones  can  take  place  without 
detection.  Mr.  Crawford,  no  friend  of  tliis  system,  ex- 
pressly admits  tliat  moral  corruption  cannot  result  from 
intercourse  so  limited,  and  makes  it  his  only  objection 
to  it  that  it  diminishes  the  irksomeness  and  the  terrors 
of  imprisonment.*  It  appears,  from  the  last  Report  of 
the  Prison  Association  of  New  York,  that  in  the  female 
prison  at  Sing  Sing,  the  law  of  silence  is  no  longer  en- 
forced. 

"  In  the  female  prison  at  Sing  Sing,  where  the  number  of  the 
prisoners  is  small,  the  law  of  absolute  silence  no  longer  exists ;  and 
although  this  change  was  originally  adopted  as  a  measure  of  dis- 
cipline, we  would  suggest,  as  it  has  been  found  to  work  well, 
whether  it  should  not  be  continued  as  a  measure  of  principle.  We 
know  that  such  a  privilege  might  be  liable  to  many  abuses,  yet 
under  certain  restrictions  and  limitations,  with  proper  vigilance  on 
the  part  of  officers,  the  abuses  to  which  it  might  lead  would  be  in- 
frequent, and  the  objections  to  it  wholly  avoided.  The  evil  effects 
of  intercommunion  might  be  in  part  provided  for  ;  and  in  cases 
in  which  this  could  not  be  done,  the  difference  would  be,  not  that 
communication  did  not  take  place,  but  that  in  the  one  instance  it 
was  obtained  through  violation  of  law,  and  in  the  other  with  the 
consciousness  of  having  done  nothing  that  required  concealment." 
2d  N.  Y.  Pris.  Dis.  Rep.  p.  36. 

Too  much  importance,  perhaps,  is  attached  here  and 
elsewhere  to  this  last  consideration.  In  a  well-ordered 
school,  hoys  are  forbidden  to  speak  to  each  other  in 
study  hours,  yet  who  ever  considered  the  stolen  word, 
though  contrary  to  rule,  to  be  either  the  evidence  or  the 
cause  of  inordinate  depravity. 

*  See  page  45,  above. 


68 


On  the  other  hand  the  proposition  that  the  natural 
craving  for  society,  instead  of  being  in  any  degree  gratr 
ified,  is  exasperated  by  working  together  in  silence ; 
that  the  presence  of  others,  under  the  proliibition  of 
speaking  to  them,  is  tantalizing,  tormenting,  and  more 
oppressive  than  unmitigated  solitude,  is  certainly  not 
self-evident. 

There  is  society  wherever  there  is  sympathy  ;  wher- 
ever men  are  conscious  of  the  presence  of  others,  en- 
gaged in  the  same  pursuit,  be  it  of  business  or  of  pleas- 
ure, with  themselves.  Men  while  laboring  actively  and 
vigorously  together  are  rarely  disposed  to  conversation. 
How  little  is  said  in  a  busy  workshop  by  any  one,  espe- 
cially if  he  does  not  interrupt  his  work  for  the  purpose  of 
speaking.  It  is  true,  the  workjnaii  can  speak,  and  the 
convict  may  not,  and  tliis  makes  an  important  difference. 
But  in  church,  where  men  may  not  speak,  or  in  an}'- 
other  place  where  they  meet  together  without  speak- 
ing, for  whatever  purpose,  whether  the  gravest  or 
the  most  frolicsome,  so  it  be  a  common  purpose,  they  do 
hold  communion  vdth  each  other,  though  silent,  and  feel 
that  they  are  not  in  sohtude.  Far  different  would  be 
the  feelings  of  any  one  among  them,  if  there  were  no 
human  being  near  him  to  sympathize  and  share  in  them, 
and  he  knew  that  he  was  alone. 

There  is  often  indeed  some  gratification  of  the  social 
instinct,  where  there  is  no  immediate  sympathy.  There 
is  some  relief  from  utter  loneliness  in  the  sight  of  a  hu- 
man form,  however  distant,  in  the  sound  of  a  human 
step,  in  the  rustling  of  a  garment ;  in  anything  which 


69 


makes  a  direct  impression  on  the  senses,  that  some  one 
is  with  us.  There  is  companionsliip  in  the  presence  of 
every  living  thing,  which  is  conscious  of  our  presence. 
Has  the  reader  forgotten  Robinson  Crusoe,  and  Ms  early 
intercourse  with  Friday,  and  the  dog,  and  the  cats,  and 
the  parrot? 

How  much  indulgence  of  this  natural  propensity  may! 
be  requisite  to  preserve  the  mental  faculties  from  disease,  Liv- 
how  much  to  afford  them  the  highest  gratification,  of  J 
which  they  are  capable,  and  how  much  may  amount  to 
excess,  and  therefore  be  injurious,  are  questions  of  fact, 
which  no  speculation  can  determine.    There  is  undoubt- 
edly a  great  difference  between   different  individuals. 
One  rich  in  intellectual  treasures,  and  accustomed  to 
intellectual  effort,  will  bear  up  under  such  privations  far 
better  than  the  usual  inmates  of  our  prisons.     Whether 
such  men  as  these  generally  are,  can  find  sufficient  food 
for  this  natural  want,  to  preserve  their  bodily  and  men- 
tal health  under  this  or  that  system  of  prison  disci- 
pline, can  be  determined  only  by  experience ;  and  to 
that  we  must  appeal. 

The  tables  of  recommitments,  which  have  been  pub- 
lished, do  not  at  all  authorize  the  broad  conclusions 
which  have  been  drawn  from  them,  especially  in  the 
United  States.  The  great  extent  of  the  country,  its  di- 
vision into  numerous  States,  all  speaking  the  same  lan- 
guage, yet  each  having  its  own  laws  and  its  own  pris- 
ons ;  the  facts  that  the  citizens  of  each  have  all  the 
rights  of  citizens  in  every  other ;  that  there  are  no 
passports  or  other  restrictions  on  the  free  movements  of 

10 


70 


individuals  ;  and  that  practically,  migration  from  State 
to  State,  is  almost  as  easy,  cheap,  and  frequent  here  as 
removal  from  one  street  to  another  in  most  parts  of 
Europe ;  all  these  enable  a  culprit,  hy  a  change  of  res- 
idence and  of  name,  to  conceal  the  circumstance  of  liis 
previous  conviction  in  another  State,  with  perfect  facil- 
ity ;  so  that  one  man  might  be  confined  in  twenty 
prisons,  and  regarded  in  each  as  a  first  offender,  while 
another,  who  had  not  changed  his  residence,  for  the 
very  reason  perhaps,  that  he  had  no  deliberate  inten- 
tion to  commit  a  new  offence ;  upon  being  overcome  by 
a  sudden  temptation,  and  recommitted  to  the  same 
prison  as  before,  might  be  deemed  there  an  incorrigible 
criminal. 

It  does  not  follow  that  such  tables  should  not  be 
kept,  but  that  due  weight  should  be  given  to  all  these 
circumstances,  in  reasoning  from  them ;  and  that  no 
deductions  whatsoever  should  be  drawn  from  temporary 
or  inconsiderable  variations,  or  from  anything  but  long 
and  uniform  experience,  especially  in  the  absence  of 
any  plan  of  intercommunication  for  enabling  the  offi- 
cers of  every  prison  to  ascertain  whether  any  convict 
committed  to  it,  had  previously  been  confined  in  an- 
other. 

So  far  as  the  reformation  of  the  convict  is  concerned, 
the  object  of  prison  discipline  is  to  induce  him  not 
merely  to  form  good  resolutions  for  the  future,  but  to 
lead  a  good  life,  to  support  himself  by  honest  industry. 
To  this  end,  his  labor  must  come  into  competition  with 
that  of  the  whole  laboring  community.     If  he  would 


71 


live  by  liis  own  exertions  as  they  do,  he  must  toil  as  they 
do,  as  regularly,  as  strenuously,  as  unremittingly ;  or 
while  they  are  occupied,  he  will  find  no  employment.  The 
only  effectual  mode  of  leading  him  to  do  this,  is  "  to  train 
him  up  in  the  way  he  should  go,"  to  accustom  liim  to  work 
steadily  and  diligently  from  eight  to  ten  hours  a  day, 
with  no  other  respite  than  the  time  requisite  for  his  meals, 
and  for  a  few  hrief  intervals  of  rest.  For  thus  he  must  do, 
if  he  would  live  by  the  labor  of  his  hands,  in  competi- 
tion with  the  honest  industry  of  New  England. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  convicts  in 
general  are  enterprising,  sagacious,  accomplished  vil- 
lains, who  might  easily  be  prosperous  and  distin- 
guished among  honest  men,  if  they  would  only  re- 
solve to  do  so ;  and  who  abandon  themselves  to  crime 
from  the  mere  wantonness  of  depravity.  Far  from  it. 
Certainly  it  is  not  so  here.  A  pretty  close  observa- 
tion, for  some  years,  of  the  character  of  the  convicts  in 
our  prison,  confirmed  by  the  opinions  of  those  best 
qualified  to  judge,  warrants  the  statement,  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  them  consists  of  those  who  are  not 
remarkable  for  energy  or  intelligence,  who,  if  some 
occupation  be  not  carved  out  for  them,  possess  little  of 
the  spirit  that  will  find  or  make  one ;  and  who,  above 
all,  are  enfeebled  in  body  and  in  mind  by  inveterate 
habits  of  idleness,  and  the  vices  which  idleness  engen- 
ders. 

The  discipline  best  adapted  to  such  men,  the  only 
one  indeed,  which  affords  any  hope  of  their  reformation, 
is  that  which  inures  them   to  constant  and  vigorous 


72 

toilj  and  which  makes  it  easy  by  making  it  habitual. 
Those  who  urge  that  habits  of  labor  acquired  by  com- 
pulsion cannot  be  continued  from  any  other  motive, 
when  that  compulsion  ceases,  ascribe  too  little  influ- 
ence to  the  power  of  habit.  Practice,  however  acquired, 
renders  that  toil  light,  which  without  it  would  be  in- 
tolerably u'ksome ;  so  that  he  who  has  been  reluctantly 
inured  to  it  by  compulsion,  will  engage  in  it  with  alac- 
rity for  profit.  A  man  unaccustomed  to  exercise,  if 
compelled  in  any  manner  to  walk  twelve  miles  a  day 
for  a  year  or  two,  will  find  it  infinitely  more  easy  to  do 
so  afterwards,  from  whatever  motive,  than  if  he  never 
had  acquired  the  habit. 

Neither  is  it  in  fact  true,  as  has  been  alleged,  that 
social  labor  is  performed  under  the  constant  apprehen- 
sion of  punishment,  while  solitary  labor  is  the  result  of 
good  resolutions  alone.  With  eight  or  ten  hours  devo- 
ted to  labor,  and  about  as  much  to  meals  and  sleep ; 
five  or  six  will  still  remain  for  moral  and  religious  in- 
struction, for  reading,  reflection  and  repentance,  quite 
as  much  as  can  be  profitably  devoted  to  them  by  men 
of  no  more  intellectual  resources  than  the  inmates  of 
our  prisons.  Indeed,  attentive  and  uninterrupted 
labor  for  an  equal  time,  is  as  much  an  impediment  to 
meditation,  whether  performed  in  solitude  or  in  society. 
Under  both  systems  there  is  abundant  opportunity  and 
motive  for  forming  good  resolutions,  while  the  social 
laborer  has  the  advantage  of  carrying  these  good  reso- 
lutions at  once  into  operation,  and  putting  their  sin- 
cerity to  the   test,  under  the  immediate  inspection  of 


73 


those  to  whom  he  has  expressed  them,  and  whose  con- 
stant presence  must  exercise  a  moral  influence  highly 
favorable  to  their  fulfilment. 

But  it  is  frequently  maintained,  as  one  of  the  great 
advantages  of  solitary  labor,  that  it  is  not  compulsor 
and  continuous,  but  entirely  voluntary ;  and  that  the 
convict  may  recur  to  work,  to  books,  to  meditation  or 
to  repose,  and  may  abandon  either  as  the  inclination 
of  the  moment  or  the  irksomeness  of  one  unvaried 
position  may  dictate ;  and  this  is  called  cultivating  a 
habit  of  self-control.  Is  it  not  rather  a  habit  of  self- 
indulgence?  Must  not  the  work,  the  reading,  the 
meditation  and  even  the  repose  itself,  resorted  to  in 
this  way,  be  almost  invariably  listless,  languid  and  un- 
profitable, especially  among  those  unaccustomed  to  ex- 
ertion of  body  or  of  mind ;  such  indeed,  as  instead  of 
fitting  them  to  earn  a  living  by  honest  labor,  would 
seem  as  if  it  were  devised  for  the  express  purpose  of 
rendering  any  such  result  impossible. 

But  the  same  persons,  who  at  one  time  attach  so 
much  importance  to  the  assertion,  that  solitaiy  labor 
is  entirely  voluntary,  maintain  at  another,  that  it  is 
compulsory,  inasmuch  as  a  stated  task  may  be  im- 
posed, though  it  is  alleged,  that  this  is  not  necessary, 
and  therefore  not  generally  done.  Voluntary  and  com- 
pulsory it  cannot  be  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
sense ;  and  the  only  mode  of  giving  an  appearance  of 
consistency  to  these  contradictions  is  to  suppose  that 
a  certain  task  is  prescribed,  and  that  it  is  left  to  the 
convict  to  perfoim  it  by  continuous  effort,  or  by  fits 


74 

and  starts  at  his  option ;  though  in  this  case,  it  is  not 
the  labor,  but  only  the  mode  of  performing  it,  which  is 
voluntary ;  and  it  will  be  found,  with  few  exceptions, 
that  the  work  of  the  convict  will  be  hastily  huddled 
up  at  the  last  moment,  and  will  be  desultory,  tardy, 
and  ill  done.  This  is  not  such  discipline  as  will  fit  him 
for  the  world. 

But,  weU  or  ill  done,  all  that  the  officer  knows  about  the 
matter  is  that  the  task  is  accomplished.  He  cannot  know, 
whether  by  irregular  and  occasional  efforts,  which  are 
comparatively  of  little  worth,  or  with  the  vigorous  and 
persevering  exertion,  the  habit  of  which  alone  can  lead 
to  permanent  reformation.  Whereas  under  the  system  of 
social  labor,  the  superintendent  or  teacher,  readily 
discerns  when  the  spirit  of  any  one  begins  to  flag,  or 
his  hand  to  grow  weary  of  its  task,  and  he  will  take  a 
proper  occasion  to  admonish  the  convict,  that  if  he 
would  have  his  good  resolutions  avail  him  anything, 
they  must  be  carried  into  immediate  effect ;  that  if  he 
would  be  restored  to  the  society  of  honest  men,  and 
live  by  honest  labor,  he  must  accustom  himself  now, 
not  hereafter,  but  now,  to  cheerful  and  unremitting  toil, 
till  habit  make  it  easy.  Even  the  best  disposed  will 
need  such  admonition  again  and  again,  for  it  is  not  by 
a  single  momentary  effort,  that  any  inveterate  habit 
can  be  conquered,  least  of  all  the  habit  of  indolence. 

The  favorite  maxim  of  John  Howard,  which  was 
constantly  on  his  lips,  and  in  his  heart,  and  in  all 
his  plans  for  the  good  of  prisoners  was,  make  them 
diligent  and  tliey  luill  he  honest.     And  he  was  right. 


75 


Or  if  it  be  doubted  whether  honesty  be  the  neces- 
sary consequence  of  diKgence,  it  will  be  allowed, 
that  they  cannot  attain  and  keep  it  if  they  are  not 
diligent ;  and  make  them  diligent  or  they  will  not 
be  honest,  will  meet  universal  assent.  This  then  is 
the  great  object  of  prison  discipline.  The  idea,  that 
its  chief  end  is  to  induce  them  to  form  good  resolu- 
tions for  the  future,  especially  if  this  is  to  be  accom- 
plished by  enfeebling  their  bodies  or  their  minds,  is 
entu'ely  fallacious.  They  may  be  easily  led  in  general 
to  form  them  by  such  means,  but  will  be  all  the  less 
able  to  carry  them  into  effect ;  which  is  in  all  cases 
the  real  difficulty.  The  good  resolutions  thus  formed, 
are  like  the  proverbially  fleeting  resolutions  of  the 
sick  bed,  and  will  vanish  with  returning  strength. 
They  have  as  little  chance  of  being  fulfilled,  as  those 
of  the  distinguished  personage,  who  resolved  in  his 
sickness  that  he  would  be  a  monk. 

In  order  to  enable  the  convict,  after  his  discharge,  to 
support  himself  contentedly  by  honest  toil,  the  most 
important  acquisition,  next  to  the  habit  of  steady,  un- 
remitted, persevering  labor,  is  skill  in  his  occupation, 
be  it  what  it  may ;  and  it  is  obvious  that  this  will  be 
best  acquired  by  social  labor,  because  thus  only  can 
the  work  be  done  under  the  constant  inspection  of  the 
master,  unless  we  suppose  a  master  in  every  cell, 
which  is  impossible.  Allowing  one  for  every  twenty- 
five  convicts,  which  would  be  twelve  for  three  hun- 
dred, he  could  not  pass  twenty  minutes  a  day  in  each 
cell  J  whereas,  if  they  were  employed  in  one  workshop, 


7 


|f\*D^ 


76 


he  would  almost  instantly  perceive  if  any  one  were 
doing  wrong  or  were  embarrassed,  and  would  step  to 
Ms  aid  at  once.  Nor,  would  the  convict's  observation 
of  his  fellow-laborers  be  less  useful.  A  single  glance 
now  and  then  would  show  him  how  they  handled  their 
tools,  and  be  often  more  instructive  than  a  formal 
lesson.  There  are  several  kinds  of  work  also,  such  as 
stone-hammering,  and  some  others,  which  have  been 
the  most  in  demand,  and  the  most  profitable  here, 
which  cannot  well  be  carried  on  in  solitary  cells,  and 
skill  in  which  can  be  acquired  only  under  the  system 
of  social  labor.  From  these  the  prisoner  returning  to 
society  from  the  solitaiy  cell  is  precluded,  and  thus 
exposed  to  greater  temptation ;  for  it  has  always  been 
found  here,  that  when  labor  is  scarce  and  wages  high, 
the  number  of  convictions  has  sensibly  diminished, 
while  they  have  much  increased  under  opposite  cir- 
cumstances. 

It  may  aid  us  in  determining  the  capacity  of  the 
convict  to  support  himself  by  the  fruits  of  his  labor 
after  his  discharge,  to  observe  what  are  in  fact  the  re- 
sults of  that  labor  in  the  prison,  though  undoubtedly 
the  earnings  of  the  same  number  of  persons  out  of 
prison  would  for  many  reasons  be  considerably  greater. 
It  is  not  to  be  assumed,  indeed,  that  the  rate  of  wages 
is  the  same  in  different  places ;  but  a  comparison  of 
the  two  systems  in  this  respect  may  disclose  a  differ- 
ence in  the  result  altogether  too  great  to  be  ascribed 
to  local  or  accidental  causes. 

The  table  marked  (A.)  shows  the  gross  earnings  in 


77 


the  State  Prison  at  Charlestown,  by  the  labor  of  the 
convicts,  during  fifteen  years  past  to  have  amounted  to 
$515,422  46,  which  gives  an  average  of  34,361  50  per 
annum ;  and  this,  di\dded  by  283,  the  average  number 
of  comdcts  during  those  years,  makes  it  appear  that 
the  annual  earnings  of  each  have  amounted  to  $121  42. 
It  should  be  stated,  that  the  team  hands,  together  with 
the  cooks  and  others  employed  in  domestic  affairs,  con- 
stitute about  one-seventh  part  of  the  whole  number  of 
convicts,  and  that  as  no  money  is  actuall}''  received  for 
theii*  services,  the  value  of  them  is  not  included  in  the 
above  amount ;  so  that  one-sixth  part  should  be  added 
to  the  last  named  sum  to  show  the  actual  earnings  of 
each  individual  profitably  employed. 

(A.) 
Gross  Earnings  of  Prisoners  in  Charlestown  and  Philadelphia. 
Charlestown.  Philadelphia. 

27,574  98 


1832 
1833 
1834 
1835 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 
1844 
1845 
1846 


31,245  18 
35,392  84 
37,807  48 

44,838  ee 

34,636  81 
37,659  08 
41,548  73 
39,520  27 
34,659  45 
34,018  97 
24,454  57 
31,250  92 
30,245  95 
30,568  57 


12,530  31 


17,468  64 
12,658  19 
15,881  20 


515,422  46  58,538  34 

Average  No.  of  Prisoners,  283^  Charlestown ;  317f  Philadelphia. 
In  the  official  reports  of  the  Philadelphia  prison,  the 


gross  earnings  are  stated  for  only  four  years ;  but  there 
seems  no  reason  for  supposing,  that  in  these  years  the 
sain  was  less  than  in  those,  for  which  it  is  not  stated. 
On  the  contrary  we  may  naturally  presume,  that  it  was 
stated  in  these  years  because  it  was  unusually  large. 
However  this  may  be,  in  the  course  of  those  four 
years  the  earnings  appear  to  have  been  $58,538  34,  or 
$14,634  53  per  annum,  which  divided  by  318,  the 
average  number  of  convict«5  during  those  years,  gives 
$46  02  as  the  earnings  of  each  individual.  It  is 
true,  that  about  one-twentieth  part  of  the  prisoners  at 
Philadelphia  are  women,  whose  earnings  should  be  less 
than  those  of  men.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  are 
no  persons  in  Philadelphia,  or  certainly  not  nearly  so 
many  as  in  Charlestown,  corresponding  to  the  team 
hands  and  others  unproductively  employed  in  the  latter 
place  ;  nor  can  there  well  be  so  in  a  prison  where  every 
convict  is  kept  entirely  separate  from  all  others.  It 
is  supposed  that  these  considerations  may  balance  each 
other.  Those,  however,  who  think  otherwise,  and 
choose  to  regard  the  labor  of  the  women  as  worth 
nothing,  should  add  one-nineteenth  part  to  the  sum  last 
named  to  get  the  gross  annual  earnings  of  the  convicts. 
No  notice  is  here  taken  of  sickness,  as  it  is  assumed,  for 
the  purpose  of  this  comparison,  that  it  is  equal  in  both 
prisons ;  though  in  comparing  the  earnings  of  the  con- 
vict with  those  of  persons  not  in  prison,  this  circum- 
stance, and  all  the  others  above-mentioned,  should  be 
taken  into  consideration.  But  these  may  here  be  dis- 
regarded as  immaterial  to  this  discussion ;  for  it  is  not 


79 


designed  now  or  hereafter  to  draw  any  conclusions  from 
minute  or  inconsiderable  differences  between  the  tabu- 
lar statements ;  but  only  from  such  broad  and  striking- 
diversities,  that  no  slight  omission  or  even  mistake,  if 
any  should  be  found  in  the  reports  or  in  the  tables,  can 
at  all  affect  the  argument.  Taking  the  figures,  as 
above  stated,  and  without  the  corrections  suggested, 
which  are  immaterial  to  our  present  purpose,  the  pris- 
oner in  Charlestown  earns  more  than  ten  dollars  a 
month,  and  the  prisoner  in  Philadelphia  less  than 
four.  Considering  that  labor  out  of  the  prison  must 
be  much  more  profitable  than  in  it,  we  may  conclude, 
that  the  labor  of  the  former,  if  continued  after  his  dis- 
charge, would  afford  him  in  this  country  a  decent  sub- 
sistence ;  while  that  of  the  latter,  notwithstanding  every 
allowance  that  can  reasonably  be  made,  would  not  so. 
These  remarks  on  the  proceeds  of  the  convicts'  labor, 
relate  to  his  own  interest  only,  and  nothing  has  been 
said  of  the  expense  to  the  State  of  these  different  sys- 
tems. Nothing  need  be  said  of  it  in  this  country,  where 
the  enormous  difference  of  expense  between  the  two 
systems  is  no  longer  disputable,  though  it  is  a  topic 
which  will  always  claim,  and  ought  to  claim  attention, 
since  the  sums  expended  for  the  support  of  guilty 
idleness  in  prison,  are  a  tax  on  honest  industry.  It  is 
a  tax  which  should  be  cheerfully  borne,  if  ultimately 
beneficial  to  the  community ;  but  we  ought  to  be  well 
assured  that  it  will  be  so  before  imposing  it.* 

*  The  expenses  of  the  prisons  at  Philadelphia  and  Charlestown.  are 
sufficiently  shown  in  Appendix,  No.  I.,  for  which  I  am  not  responsible  ; 
though  I  believe,  upon  high  authority,  that  it  is  correct. 


80 

It  is  another  most  important  question,  what  is  the 
comparative  eifect  of  the  two  systems  on  the  health  of 
the  body  and  of  the  mind.  This  is  not  entirely  un- 
connected with  the  last ;  for  in  vain  do  we  inspii'e  the 
convict  with  good  resolutions,  accustom  him  to  diligent 
labor,  and  train  him  up  to  acquire  skill  in  some  profit- 
able occupation,  if  we  send  him  forth  into  the  world 
enfeebled  in  mind  or  in  body,  without  the  firmness  to 
maintain  his  resolutions,  or  the  strength  to  prosecute 
,  his  toil.  But  it  involves  far  higher  considerations,  the 
\  claims  of  humanity  and  of  justice.  There  are  no  doubt 
a  few  atrocious  crimes,  which  in  the  present  state  of 
society,  may  rightfully  be  punished  by  the  infliction  of 
death ;  but  who  can  imagine  an  atrocity,  that  the  hand 
of  man  can  execute,  or  the  heart  of  man  conceive, 
which  may  justly  be  punished  by  the  infliction  of  in- 
sanity ?  There  is  no  need  of  argiiing  this  point.  The 
only  doubt  will  be  as  to  the  facts. 

But  how  shall  this  doubt  be  resolved  ?  The  only 
mode  hitherto  known  for  ascertaining  the  proportion  of 
deaths  or  insane  cases  to  the  whole  number  of  persons 
anywhere,  is  to  compare  the  actual  returns  for  a  series 
of  years.  The  opinions  of  the  most  learned  and  expe- 
rienced are  of  no  avail  here ;  for  those  opinions  must  be 
founded  on  the  same  facts,  and  the  facts  themselves 
are  better  evidence  than  the  opinions.  Nor  can  the 
officers  of  a  prison  find  any  difficulty  in  ascertaining 
these  facts ;  though  there  is  some  diflerence  between 
the  two  cases.  Of  the  actual  number  of  deaths  within 
the  year,  they  may  be  absolutely  certain,  since  it  can- 


81 


not  long  be  doubtful  in  any  case,  whether  a  prisoner  is 
living  or  dead,  while  there  are  some  instances  of  sup- 
posed insanity,  on  the  reality  of  which,  opinions  may 
differ,  so  that  comparisons  cannot  be  carried  out  with 
the  same  minute  exactness  in  relation  to  these,  as  to 
the  deaths.  But  these  instances  can  hardly  bear  so 
large  a  proportion  to  all  the  insane,  in  any  well-regula- 
ted prison,  as  to  affect  materially  the  general  conclu- 
sions now  intended  to  be  drawn.  At  any  rate,  we  may 
be  quite  sure  that  the  officers  of  our  penitentiaries  do 
not  state  the  number  of  insane  cases  to  be  greater  than 
it  is  in  fact.  The  determination,  what  is  the  cause  of 
insanity  in  any  particular  case,  and  what  the  time  of  its 
origin,  especially  if  this  be  avowedly  remote,  is  still  more* 
dependent  on  opinion ;  so  that  when  a  prisoner  has  re- 
mained under  constant  inspection  for  months  or  years, 
and  is  subsequently  discovered  to  be  insane,  the  allega- 
tion that  he  was  so  on  his  admission,  cannot  be  readily 
received,  unless  special  and  satisfactory  giounds  for  the 
assertion  be  expressly  stated.  For  it  is  hard  to  believe  ; 
that  insanity  could  exist  so  long,  without  the  slightest 
suspicion,  or  that  it  could  have  escaped  detection,  un- 
der the  rigid  scrutiny,  to  which  the  slightest  suspicion 
must  have  led  in  any  well-ordered  prison.  Even,  how- 
ever, if  such  cases  do  exist,  they  cannot  be  numerous  ^  ' 
enough  to  affect  our  conclusions. 

The  remarks  frequently  made  in  case  of  death  or 
insanity,  that  the  prisoner,  on  his  admission,  had  a  ten- 
dency to  disease,  was  of  imperfect  health,  looked  deli- 
cate, and  the  like,  are  not  worthy  of  regard.     These 


i 


vague  phrases  convey  such  dilTerent  ideas  to  different 
mhuls,  that  they  are  of  no  other  use  than  to  refresh  the 
memory  of  him  who  made  them.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  proportions  of  healthy  and  unhealthy  con- 
victs, at  the  time  of  their  commitment  to  prison  in  dif- 
ferent places,  between  which  places  there  is  no  observar 
ble  difference  in  the  health  of  the  inhabitants  at  large, 
though  it  may  be  occasionally  striking  from  accidental 
causes,  yet  cannot,  through  a  series  of  years,  be  impor- 
tant enough  to  have  any  influence  on  this  discussion. 

The  confident  and  sweeping  statements  so  often 
made  on  the  subject,  such  as  that  this  or  that  system 
is  shown  by  experience  not  to  be  injurious  to  health, 
or  to  be  better  than  all  others,  &c.,  though  made  in 
the  form  of  assertions  of  fact,  are  nothing  but  mere 
expressions  of  opinion ;  and  when  not  accompanied  by 
the  evidence  and  arguments,  on  which  they  rest,  are 
of  little  value  in  discussions  of  this  nature. 

It  is  true,  that  in  a  court  of  justice,  the  opinion  of 
one  skilled  in  any  art  or  science  is  good  evidence  on 
any  point,  for  the  correct  decision  of  which,  an  ac- 
quaintance with  that  art  or  science  is  requisite  ;  and  it 
may  often  be  the  best  evidence  which  the  nature  of  the 
case  admits ;  for,  even  if  it  were  possible,  which  it  is 
not,  for  such  a  witness  to  state  all  the  experiments, 
observations  and  facts  which  lead  him  to  adopt  that 
opinion,  yet  he  could  not  commuiucate  the  long  pro- 
fessional experience  which  alone  enables  him  to  draw 
the  just  deduction  from  them.  But  when  he  addresses 
men,  versed  in  the  same  science  with  himself,  the  mere 


83 


statement  of  his  opinion,  without  the  grounds  of  it, 
will  have  very  little  weight  with  them,  if  it  differ  in 
the  slightest  degree  from  their  own ;  for  they,  too,  have 
some  professional  knowledge,  against  which  his  is  to 
be  weighed,  and  some  experience  to  be  compared  and 
combined  with  his. 

Not  only  in  discussions  among  equals,  but  in  teach- 
ing, the  really  scientific  man  in  these  days,  since  sci- 
ence has  ceased  to  be  a  mystery,  states  not  only  his 
opinions,  but  the  grounds  of  them;  and  indeed  the 
sounder  they  are,  the  more  ready  and  the  more  able  he 
is  to  give  a  reason  for  them.  If  Professor  Agassiz  had 
stated  in  his  lectures  the  various  rates  at  which  he  be- 
lieved that  the  different  portions  of  a  glacier  moved 
down  its  valley,  without  stating  the  grounds  of  his  be- 
lief, high  as  would  be  the  mere  authority  of  such  a 
statement,  it  would  not  have  been  half  so  satisfactory 
as  when  accompanied,  as  it  was,  by  a  precise  exposi- 
tion of  the  experiments,  observations  and  facts  on 
which  it  rested.  Thus  accompanied,  it  brought  home 
to  every  hearer,  to  the  most  ignorant  as  to  the  most 
enlightened,  a  double  conviction  of  its  correctness.* 
And  even  where  specific  instances  or  examples  are  not 

*  There  is  reason  to  hope,  that  this  accomplished  man,  whose  lectures 
have  been  listened  to  here  for  a  year  past  by  audiences  consisting  not  of  a 
few  hundred,  the  largest  number  usually  seen  at  scientific  lectures  in 
Europe,  but  of  thousands,  with  the  highest  degree  of  instruction  and  de- 
light, and  whose  personal  intercourse  has  been  enjoyed  by  so  many  with 
not  less  of  either,  will  before  long  become  a  resident  in  this  country,  and 
inspire  our  young  men  of  science,  and  our  oldest  institutions,  with  a  por- 
tion of  his  own  enthusiasm. 


84 


necessarj^  for  proof,  they  are  frequently  so  for  illir-tra- 
tion ;  and  the  lessons  they  give  are  precise,  impressive, 
and  unsuspected. 

So  generally  is  this  now  understood  that  the  enun- 
ciation in  matters  of  science,  of  positive  opinions  with- 
out proof,  of  assertions  that  they  stand  to  reason  without 
showing  what  reason ;  or  that  they  are  supported  by 
experience,  without  specifying  instances  of  that  ex- 
perience, excite  distrust  rather  than  assent.  And  yet 
in  this  new  science  the  zeal  of  controversy  seems  to 
have  caused  such  allegations  to  appear  again  as  often 
and  as  boldly  as  in  those  darker  times,  when  the  results 
of  science  and  art  were  held  up  as  miracles  for  the  ad- 
miration of  the  world,  while  their  processes  were  revealed 
to  none  but  the  initiated. 

This  nowhere  occurs  more  frequently  than  with  refer- 
ence to  questions  touching  the  health  and  sanity  of  con- 
victs, questions  coming  within  the  domain  of  medicine, 
in  which  science  itself  this  dogmatic  spirit  —  perhaps 
on  account  of  the  obscurity  of  much  of  the  evidence 
on  which  it  must  rely  —  lingered  longer  and  later  than 
in  any  other  of  the  ancient  sciences.  A  striking  and 
instructive  instance  of  this  is  afforded  by  the  testimony 
of  several  eminent  medical  men  on  the  trial  of  Capt. 
Donellan  for  the  murder  of  his  brother-in-law,  Sir  Theo- 
dosius  Boughton,  for  which  he  was  executed  in  the  last 
century,  at  Warwick,  in  England.  All  but  one  of  them 
confidently  testified,  that  from  the  symptoms  stated 
by  other  witnesses  to  have  occurred  during  the  last  ill- 
ness of  the  deceased,  his  death  was  undoubtedly  caused 


85 


by  poison.  That  one  was  John  Hunter,  who  maintained 
that  those  symptoms  afforded  no  ground  whatever  for 
any  medical  opinion  on  the  subject.  They  were  such 
as  might  be  produced  by  poison,  and  therefore,  if  it 
were  proved  that  poison  had  been  taken,  knowing  this 
to  be  a  sufficient  cause  for  them,  he  should  ascribe  them 
to  it.  But  as  they  might  equally  arise  from  other 
causes,  the  mere  fact  of  their  existence  did  not  prove 
that  poison  had  been  administered.  The  Judge  was 
not  satisfied  with  this  answer,  and  insisted  upon  an 
opinion  from  the  witness  either  one  way  or  the  other, 
but  in  vain.  The  jury  and  the  doctors  wondered  at 
Hunter's  confession  of  ignorance,  then  a  very  novel 
thing  in  either  of  the  three  learned  professions.  But  the 
members  of  his  profession  at  the  present  day  think  him 
entirely  in  the  right,  and  agree  with  liim,  that  no  medical 
opiidon  whatsoever  could  be  founded  on  such  symptoms 
alone.  The  truth  is,  that  having  no  means  of  know- 
ledge, they  were  all  equally  ignorant  on  the  subject  j 
but  that  Hunter  was  aware  of  his  ignorance,  while  they 
were  ignorant  of  theirs. 

A  more  amusing  and  more  recent  example  occurred  in 
our  own  country  about  thirty  years  ago,  when  it  was  first 
proposed  to  send  a  cargo  of  ice  from  Boston  to  New 
Orleans.  An  idea  was  then  started  in  the  latter  city, 
that  ice  in  that  warm  climate  was  unhealthy,  and  this 
idea  became  so  prevalent,  that  the  City  Government 
thought  it  to  be  its  duty  to  apply  to  the  Medical 
Faculty  for  their  opinion,  and  having  learned  from 
them,  after  grave,  solemn  and  formal  deliberation,  that 

12 


86 


the  use  of  ice  in  hot  weather  was  extremely  pernicious, 
and  had  been  proved  to  be  so  by  all  experience,  passed  a 
sanitary  law  to  prevent  its  introduction.  This  law,  it  is 
said,  still  exists  unrepealed  but  unregarded,  and  nowhere 
is  the  use  of  ice  now  recommended  more  freely,  more  fre- 
quently, or  in  more  various  cases  by  medical  men,  than 
in  the  city  of  New  Orleans  itself.  It  was  no  doubt  the 
perception  of  this  tendency  in  his  profession  which  led 
Baron  Louis  to  that  precise  notation  of  specific  instances, 
that  accumulation  of  particular  cases,  which  seems  calcu- 
lated to  make  the  medical  approach  the  exact  sciences  ; 
and  to  cause  such  a  sifting  of  general  assertions  and 
assumed  principles  in  this  science,  as  may  greatly  dimin- 
ish their  number  and  increase  their  value. 

These  considerations  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  in 
weighing  general  assertions  and  opinions  with  regard 
to  the  health  of  convicts  under  different  systems.  As 
to  those  special  assertions  of  fact,  which  involve  opinion 
to  a  certain  degree,  such  as  the  cause  or  duration  of 
disease  in  an  individual  case,  but  for  which  we  can 
have  no  other  direct  evidence  than  the  statement  of  one 
who  has  seen  the  patient ;  those  who  have  not  done  so, 
must  take  that  statement  with  no  other  qualification 
than  may  be  warranted  by  other  known  facts,  and  by 
their  opinion  of  the  character  and  intelligence  of  the 
observer. 

There  is  yet  one  more  consideration  peculiarly  im- 
portant, at  the  present  time,  in  investigating  the  sub- 
ject of  health,  though  not  confined  to  this,  but  ex- 
tending to  all  points  of  prison  discipline,  which  requires 


87 

a  few  remarks.  It  relates  to  tlie  position  of  the  ob- 
server himself;  to  the  question  how  far  he  is  pledged, 
or  responsible  for  the  success  of  the  system  of  which  he 
speaks.  When  a  government  introduces  a  new  plan, 
or  a  new  system  into  its  prisons,  avowedly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  experiment  alone,  without  at  all  pledging  itself 
for  the  event,  and  dii^ects  its  officers  to  carry  this  plan 
into  effect  for  this  purpose  only,  we  may  reasonably  ex- 
pect that  the  experiment  will  be  fairly  tried,  and  its  re- 
sult known  and  acknowledged,  without  reluctance  or 
hesitation,  within  a  reasonable  time.  But  when  a 
State  fully  and  finally  adopts  a  new  system  without 
reserve,  as  its  own,  and  pro\ddes  by  law  for  its  general 
establishment,  thus  proclaiming  its  unqualified  approba- 
tion of  it ;  officers  will  naturally  and  properly  be  ap- 
pointed to  administer  it,  who  entertain  and  express  the 
same  sentiments.  Such  men,  and  the  State  itself,  will 
be  very  slow  to  see,  and  very  slow  to  believe  anything 
which  evinces  the  failure  of  theh  system.  Without  im- 
puting any  wrong  motive  to  them,  it  cannot  be,  that 
they  should  look  without  the  utmost  reluctance  upon 
any  event  which  would  be  understood  to  imply,  that 
the  system,  for  the  success  of  which  they  have  thus 
publicly  made  themselves  responsible,  was  either  un- 
wisely chosen  or  ill-administered.  Accordingly  in  the 
States  of  New  York  and  Maine,  where  for  the  purpose 
of  experiment,  a  portion  of  the  convicts  were  confined 
to  solitary  cells  without  labor,  the  experiment  was  fully 
tried  in  both,  within  the  short  period  of  eighteen 
months,  and  its  failui'e  at  once  announced  \   and  there 


■ 


was  an  end  of  it.  While  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
which  by  law  of  March  3d,  1818,  adopted  the  same 
system  without  reserve,  and  provided  that  a  prison 
should  be  at  once  built,  exclusively  fitted  for  this  sys- 
tem at  Pittsburg,  and  another  on  the  same  plan  after- 
wards at  Philadelphia,  so  that  for  more  than  twelve 
years  this  was  generally  spoken  of  as  the  Pennsylvania 
system, —  did  not  readily  renounce  it,  though  it  was  put 
in  operation  at  Pittsburg,  a?  far  as  it  ever  was  in  Penn- 
sylvania, in  the  year  1826,  without  success ;  but  still 
clung  to  it  in  1828,  and  it  was  not  until  the  following 
year  that  she  relinquished  it.  This  is  not  mentioned 
to  the  credit  or  discredit  of  either  of  these  States ;  it 
arose  from  the  difference  of  their  position,  not  of  their 
character ;  and  had  their  situation  in  this  respect  been 
reversed,  it  is  not  improbable  that  their  conduct  would 
have  been  so  too. 

Still  longer  and  more  obstinate  was  the  adherence  of 
the  same  State,  and  many  others  to  the  system  of  con- 
tamination put  in  force  by  that  State  in  1790,  and  sub- 
sequently by  them,  and  continued  for  years  after  its  evils 
are  now  admitted  to  have  been  apparent. 

But,  they  had  pledged  themselves  too  deeply  for  the 
excellence  of  this  system,  and  held  it  up  with  too 
much  exultation  to  the  admii'ation  of  the  world,  not  to 
be  more  than  a  little  blind  to  its  defects.  It  need 
hardly  be  remarked,  that  in  this,  as  in  other  similar 
cases,  the  testimony  which  coincides  with  the  interests, 
views  and  prejudices  of  the  witness,  has  much  less 
weight  than  that,  which  is  adverse  to  them. 


89 


It  is  asldng  too  much  of  human  nature  to  require, 
that  any  men  should  be  quick  to  discern,  and  forward 
to  proclaim,  the  defects  of  a  system,  devised  or  ad- 
ministered by  themselves.  It  was  therefore  perhaps  un- 
fortunate, for  England,  that  during  so  many  years  its 
national  penitentiaries  were  in  fact  inspected  by  those 
who  had  planned  and  established  them,  and  who  had 
so  repeatedly  and  earnestly  maintained  the  perfection 
of  their  system.  The  commission  for  governing  the 
prison  at  PentonviUe,  presents,  indeed,  a  long  array  of 
distinguished  names ;  but  these  eminent  men  cannot 
have  had  any  personal  knowledge  for  the  most  part  of 
the  details  of  this  institution,  and  must  have  relied 
entu-ely  on  the  representations  of  the  few  active  mem- 
bers of  the  board.  Without  at  all  questioning  the 
accuracy  of  any  precise  and  definite  fact  stated  by 
them,  we  cannot  be  expected  to  rely  implicitly  on  their 
opinions  of  the  merits  of  their  own  system,  or  of  their 
own  administration  of  it. 

The  absurdity  of  the  attempt  often  made  to  decide 
what  is  in  fact  the  influence  of  any  system  of  prison 
discipline  upon  health  and  sanity  by  abstract  reason- 
ing, and  by  deducing  what  is  from  what  ought  to  be, 
upon  general  principles,  is  exemplified  in  so  striking 
and  instructive  a  manner  in  the  Philadelphia  reports, 
that  I  cannot  forbear  citing  from  them  the  following 
passages ;  for  though  the  first  refers  more  particularly 
to  bodily  and  the  second  to  mental  disease,  it  would  be 
idle  to  suppose  that  the  writers  would  give  us  to  un- 
derstand that  what  is  so  highly  conducive  to  bodily 
health  is  injurious  to  that  of  the  mind. 


^ 


90 


I    In  the  sixteenth  report  for  the  year  1844,  the  physi- 
cian says : 

■;  "  Every  day's  experience  has  increased  my  confidence  in  the 
lorking  of  the  system.     To  say  nothing  of  the  comparatively 
mall  number,  in  so  depraved  a  population,  of  genuine  and  severe 
ascs  of  disease,  not  contracted  out  of  prison,  and  the  few  instances 
'  fatal  disorder  developed  in  the  cells,  we  cannot  help  being  con- 
.ntly  struck  with  the  marked  improvement  among  many  of  the 
nvicts.      We  repeatedly  observe  the  beneficial  effects  of  the 
lange  from  a  career  of  dissi^^ation,  privation,  and  exposure,  to 
jne  of  regular  and  industrious  occupation  with  plenty  of  good  food, 
and  comfortable  quarters.     In  this  manner  we  are   forcibly  im- 
pressed with  the  justice  of  the  remark,  made  years  ago  by  Dr. 
3ache,  in  one  of  his  reports  :  '  The  circumstance,  indeed,  of  being 
withdrawn  from  the  influence  of  the  severer  atmospheric  vicissi- 
tudes, such  as  wet  and  cold,  which  are  prolific  sources  of  disease 
with  a  large  portion  of  the  community,  would,  of  Itself,  more  than 
compensate  for  the  operation  of  any  unfavorable  causes  to  health, 
experienced  in  this  prison.     But  when  it  is  considered,  that  many 
of  the  individuals  sent  to  our  prisons,  have  been  in  previous  habits 
of  drunkenness  and  debauchery,  the  comparative  hcalthfulness  of 
the  confinement  and  mode  of  discipline  must  be  apparent.'  "     Six- 
teenth Report,  p.  41. 

In  the  report  of  his  successor  for  the  very  next  year, 
we  find  the  following : 

"  It  certainly  cannot  be  denied  that  a  larger  ratio  of  insanity  has 
appeared  within  the  year  than  the  very  imperfect  statistics  of  this 
subject  give  for  the  general  population ;  but  the  question  as  to 
which  produces  a  greater  or  less  amount  of  that  disease,  I  have 
never  considered  as  resting  between  equal  numbers  of  the  commu- 
nity and  the  inmates  of  a  penal  institution,  but  as  entirely  between 
the  rival  systems  of  Auburn  and  Pennsylvania.  For,  to  expect 
from  an  assembly  of  prisoners,  no  matter  what  the  form  of  disci- 
pline to  which  they  are  subjected,  the  same  proportional  amount  of 
mental  health  as  is  enjoyed  in  society,  is  in  a  degree  to  put  on  a 


91 


par,  as  predisposing  to  insanity,  drunkenness  and  sobriety,  anxiety 
and  content,  remorse  and  the  consciousness  of  a  well-spent  life,  — 
in  a  word,  vice  and  virtue."     Seventeenth  Report,  p.  56. 

"  Who  shall  decide  when  Doctors  disagi^ee  ?  "    Expe 
rience,  and  experience  alone.      These  arguments  art 
very  plausible,  but  they  afford  no  proof,  no  evidence 
no  indication  of  the  fact ;    though  it  is  gratifying  t 
know,  that  however  the  fact  may  turn  out,  we  are  pr- 
vided  beforehand  with  a  very  ingenious  and  perhap 
satisfactory  explanation  of  it. 

Let  us  pursue  the  beaten  path,  then,  and  compare  the 
oflficial  returns,  remarking  however, 

1.  That  such  comparisons,  when  made  for  single 
years,  are  of  little  value,  and  if  those  years  are  selected 
without  reason  assigned,  of  none  at  all.  A  regular 
series,  and  that  as  recent  as  possible,  should  always  be 
taken  for  the  comparison,  or  if  any  year  be  omitted  on 
good  grounds,  the  numbers  omitted  should  be  stated, 
with  the  reasons  for  the  omission. 

2.  Broad  conclusions  should  not  be  drawn  from 
slight  differences ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  where  the 
differences  are  great  and  unifoim,  we  are  not  to  reject 
the  conclusions  founded  on  them,  on  the  ground  of  any 
mere  conjecture,  that  there  may  be  some  error  or  un- 
known element,  that  might  affect  the  result.  As  in 
astronomy,  no  observation  is  known  to  be  perfectly 
exact ;  but  there  are  conclusions  founded  on  observation, 
which  are  deemed  to  be  beyond  the  limits  of  probable 
error,  and  relied  on  as  if  mathematically  certain. 

3.  The  calculations,  founded  on  such  tables,  should 


92 


always  be  made  in  the  simplest  possible  form.  The 
simplicity  of  a  process  is  its  highest  merit  with  mathema- 
ticians ;  and  with  those  who  are  not  so,  it  is  the  greatest 
security  against  error.  The  Second  Annual  Repori  of 
that  able  and  excellent  Society,  the  Prison  Association 
of  New  York,  made  for  the  year  1845,  affords  a 
striking  example  of  the  enormous  mistakes  which  may 
result  from  founding  such  calculations  on  a  complex 
/  and  erroneous  basis.  As  the  publications  of  this  Society 
have  great  and  just  influence,  and  may  lead  many 
not  only  to  adopt  those  mistakes,  but  to  make  other 
calculations  on  the  same  basis,  it  may  be  useful  to 
explain  its  unsoundness. 

On  the  94th  page,  is  a  table  purporting  to  show  the 
average  proportion  of  deaths  to  prisoners  in  prisons  con- 
ducted on  the  silent  and  separate  systems.  Its  ultimate 
conclusions  are  averages  of  ratios  and  not  of  numbers. 
The  error  of  this  and  its  consequences  may  be  explained 
by  a  single  instance.  It  having  been  stated,  that  in 
the  prison  at  Philadelphia,  the  proportion  of  deaths  to 
prisoners  was  as  1  to  28.44,  in  that  of  Pittsburg,  as 
1  to  48.76,  and  in  that  of  New  Jersey,  as  1  to  136.75 ; 
these  three  numbers  are  added  together,  and  one-third 
part  taken,  as  expressing  the  average  of  the  whole, 
viz. :  1  to  71.31.  This  must  mean,  or  it  means  nothing 
to  the  pm-pose,  that  taking  all  three  prisons  together, 
the  whole  number  of  deaths,  was  to  the  whole  number 
of  prisoners,  as  1  to  71.31.  Certainly  every  one  must 
so  understand  it. 

Now,  this  is  far  from  true,  and  there  are  only  two 


93 


possible  cases,  in  wliich  the  result  of  such  a  process 
can  be  correct.  1.  When  the  several  propoiiions  are 
the  same.  2.  When  the  several  proportions  thus  stated, 
bear  the  same  ratio  to  each  other  as  the  number  of 
convicts  in  the  different  prisons.  That  either  of  these 
things  should  occur  thi'oughout  such  a  table  as  that 
from  which  this  extract  is  made,  though  possible 
mathematically,  must  be  considered  physically  impos- 
sible, since  there  are  millions  upon  millions  of  chances 
against  its  occurrence  to  one  millionth  part  of  a  chance 
in  favor  of  it. 

The  error  of  such  a  process  will  be  better  proved, 
on  this  occasion,  b}''  an  example  than  a  formula.  Let 
A.  be  a  prison  containing  1000  convicts,  of  whom  100 
die.  Let  B.  be  one  containing  100  prisoners,  of  whom 
1  dies.  The  proportion  of  A.  is  1  to  10,  that  of  B.  1 
to  100.  The  two  added  together  make  110,  half  of 
which  is  55,  so  that  the  average  proportion  of  the  two 
together,  according  to  this  mode  of  calculation,  is  1 
to  55.  But  101  have  died,  and  if  one  has  died  out  of 
every  55,  the  whole  number  must  have  been  55  times 
101,  or  5.555.  In  fact,  however,  it  was  only  1100, 
of  which  number,  101  have  died.  This  is  not  as  1 
to  55,  but  as  1  to  10.89,  a  difference  of  more  than 
fivefold. 

Another  example.  Take  A.  as  before,  and  B.  with 
100  prisoners,  of  whom  no  one  dies.  The  proportion 
of  A.  is  as  1  to  10  ;  that  of  B.  as  1  to  infinity.  Add 
these  together  and  take  half,  you  still  have  the  pro- 
portion of  1  to  infinity,  that  is,  none ;  so.  that  though 

13 


94 


100  convicts  have  died  in  one  of  these  prisons,  yet 
taking  them  both  together,  there  is  nobody  dead  at 

all 

On  the  preceding  page  of  the  same  report  is  a  table 
including  fourteen  years,  showing  the  number  of  con- 
victs and  the  number  of  deaths  in  the  same  prisons, 
for  the  same  period  as  the  former,  excepting  in  that  of 
Pittsburg  for  four  years  after  1825,  where  the  num- 
bers were  then  too  small  to  vary  the  result  materially, 
and  in  that  at  Charlestown,  for  the  same  time,  which 
was  not  then  under  the  silent  system.  From  this  it 
appears,  that  the  whole  number  of  convicts,  in  the  three 
prisons,  for  which  the  above  calculation  is  made,  was 
6347;  and  that  of  deaths  197.  So  that  the  true 
average  proportion  for  that  time,  is  as  1  to  32.22,  in- 
stead of  1  to  71.31,  a  difference,  which  needs  no  com- 
ment. There  is  a  table  of  pardons  on  the  109th  page 
of  the  same  report,  constructed  on  the  same  false 
principle. 

The  annexed  table  marked  (B.)  shows  the  number  of 
deaths  in  the  Philadelphia  penitentiary  for  the  last  ten 
years,  and  table  (C.)  those  in  Charlestown  during  the 
same  period,  both  institutions  having  then  attained  their 
mature  growth,  and  full  numbers.* 

*  Under  the  term  blacks  all  persons  of  color  are  included. 


95 


(B.) 

Deaths  in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  at  Philadelphia.,  for  ten  years 
past^  made  up  to  December  31^  of  each  year. 


Fears. 

Whole  number 
of  prisoners. 

Whites. 

Deaths  of 

Whiles. 

Blacks. 

Deaths  of 
Blacks. 

Total 
Deaths. 

1837 

387 

233 

7 

154 

10 

17 

1838 

402 

241 

7 

161 

20 

27 

1839 

418 

245 

2 

173 

9 

11 

1840 

406 

236 

9 

170 

13 

22 

1841 

347 

215 

4 

132 

13 

17 

1842 

342 

212 

3 

130 

6 

9 

1843 

334 

212 

5 

122 

6 

11 

1844 

360 

240 

6 

120 

7 

13 

1845 

319 

224 

3 

95 

12 

15 

1846 

326 

232 

4 

94 

9 

13 

3641 

2290 

50 

1351 

105 

155 

(C.) 

Deaths  in  the  Penitentiary  at  Charlestown  Massachusetts,  for  ten 

years  past,  made  up  to  September  30th  of  each  year. 


Years. 

Whole  number 
of  prisoners. 

Whiles. 

Blacks  and 
Indians. 

Total 
Deaths. 

1837 

288 

264 

24 

5 

1838 

303 

277 

26 

7 

1839 

316 

289 

27 

5 

1840 

318 

285 

33 

2 

1841 

333 

297 

36 

8 

1842 

304 

272 

32 

2 

1843 

271 

234 

37 

2 

1844 

276 

247 

29 

2 

1845 

287 

256 

31 

1 

1846 

253 

230 

23 

1 

2949 

2651 

298 

35 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  former  table  the  num- 
ber of  deaths  among  the  whites  is  distinguished  from 
that  among  the  blacks,  and  that  the  latter  is  by  far  the 


96 


•Teatest.  A  similar  clifTerence  is  said  to  exist  also  in  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  but  not  to  so  great  an  extent.  It  is 
stated  that  for  ten  years  from  1820,  the  annual  average 
of  white  deaths  in  that  city  was  2.42  per  cent.,  and 
that  of  blacks  4.75,*  while  in  the  penitentiary,  as  will 
be  perceived,  for  the  last  ten  years,  the  average  of 
whites  is  2.18  per  cent,  and  the  average  of  blacks 
7.77  per  cent.  No  doubt  there  is  a  difference  in  this 
respect  between  the  two  races,  but  why  so  great  a  dis- 
crepancy should  exist  between  the  city  and  the  prison 
has  not  yet  been  explained.  May  not  the  exercise  of 
the  pardoning  power  have  some  influence  in  this  re- 
spect? Supposing  that  blacks  were  never  pardoned, 
but  remained  in  prison  during  the  whole  time  for  which 
they  were  sentenced,  and  that  white  men  were  often 
pardoned,  so  that  while  the  numbers  were  kept  good 
by  frequent  admissions,  the  individuals  were  perpet- 
ually changing,  and  thus  each  passed  a  short  time  com- 
paratively in  confinement.  If  a  prison  life  tends  to 
produce  disease  and  death,  would  not  this  fact  occasion 
a  difference  between  the  two  races  in  this  respect  while 
in  prison  ?  And  when  it  is  considered,  that  the  hope  of 
pardon  must  greatly  strengthen  and  sustain  a  prisoner, 
especially  one  in  solitary  confinement,  might  not  this 
difference  be  considerable  ?  Now  how  is  the  fact  ?  Un- 
fortunately the  official  reports  do  not  enable  us  to  carry 
back  this  investigation  beyond  the  last  five  years, 
during  wliich  period  the  pardons  have  been  as  follows : 

*2  New  York  Reports,  91. 


97 


Years. 

Whites. 

Blacks. 

1842 

21 

2 

1843 

15 

0 

1844 

39 

7 

1845 

30 

2 

1846 

26 

0 

131  11 

During  this  time  the  whites  have  been  precisely 
twice  as  many  as  the  blacks,  the  average  of  the  one 
being  221|,  and  that  of  the  other  just  111.  The  num- 
ber of  whites  then  has  been  to  that  of  the  blacks  as 
two  to  one,  and  the  pardons  of  the  former  to  those  of 
the  latter  almost  exactly  as  twelve  to  one. 

It  is  observed,  that  there  is  somewhat  less  mortality 
among  the  whites  in  Boston,  than  among  the  blacks, 
but  as  there  is  no  distinction  made  between  the  deaths 
of  the  one  and  the  other  in  the  Reports  of  this  prison, 
the  difference  there,  cannot  be  ascertained.  They 
generally  constitute  from  10  to  11  per  cent,  of  the 
convicts,  though  they  form  but  1.18  per  cent,  of  the 
population  of  the  State,  and  only  2.66  per  cent,  of  that 
of  Boston.* 

It  has  been  not  uncommon  here  and  elsewhere  to 
insist,  that  no  comparison  whatever  should  be  insti- 
tuted between  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  at  Philadelphia, 
and  any  other  prison,  on  the  ground,  that  the  greater 
number  of  blacks  there  rendered  any  such  comparison 
impossible ;  and  it  has  often  been  attempted,  under 
the  shelter  of  this  general  allegation,  to  escape  from 
the  terrors  of  the   truth.     But  they  are   not  to   be 

*  Chickering  on  the  Population  of  Massachusetts,  p.  156. 


98 


escaped  from  thus.  "We  will  compare  the  mingled 
population  of  whites  and  blacks  together  in  the  prison 
at  Charlestown,  with  the  whites  alone,  in  that  of 
Philadelphia.  The  difference  is  apparent  at  a  glance. 
In  the  former  it  is  1.19  per  cent,  in  the  latter 
2.18  per  cent.  Or,  to  make  it  more  intelKgible  to 
readers  in  general,  who  do  not  readily  comprehend 
these  per  centages  and  fractions  of  a  man's  life,  where 
119  prisoners  die  in  Chailestown  prison,  no  less  than 
218  white  prisoners  die  in  that  of  Philadelphia ;  an  im- 
mense difference.  But  may  it  not  be  occasioned  by  the 
diversity  of  soil  or  climate  or  temperature  ?  Perhaps  so ; 
let  us  inquire.  The  influence  of  these  causes  and  of  aU 
other  causes  whatsoever  not  belonging  to  the  prisons 
themselves,  must  operate  as  well  without  as  within  them, 
and  affect  the  whole  community  no  less  than  the  in- 
mates of  the  prison.  What  then  is  the  fact?  The 
deaths  among  the  white  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia, 
are,  as  has  been  stated,  2.42  per  cent.  In  Boston,  the 
deaths  since  1830,  are  on  an  average  2.09  per  cent,  a 
difference  indeed,  but  by  no  means  sufficient  to  ex- 
plain the  difference  in  the  prisons-;  and  leaving  still  a 
vast  residuum  to  be  accounted  for.  It  has  been  urged, 
however,  that  there  is  a  difference  in  the  length  of  the 
sentences.  This  is  true.  But  the  difference  is  in  favor 
of  Philadelphia,  as  the  sentences  are  shorter  there  than 
here,  and  the  influence  of  this  cause,  therefore,  should 
make  the  mortality  in  their  prison  less  than  that  in 
ours,  instead  of  more. 

Again,  it  has  been  alleged,  that  the  health  of  the 


99 


prisoners  in  Philadelphia,  is  at  least  as  good  as  that  of 
the  community  around,  the  mortality  being  less  within 
than  without  the  walls,  since  the  mortality  in  the  city 
is  2.42  per  cent.,  while  in  the  prison  it  is  only  2.18 
per  cent.  But  this  is  not  so.  The  mortality  is  not 
less  within  than  without  the  walls,  because  such  is  the 
result  of  the  tables.  The  greatest  proportion  of  deaths, 
that  which  raises  the  average  so  high  in  the  general 
bills  of  mortality,  takes  place  in  infancy  and  childhood. 
But  the  inmates  of  both  these  prisons  are  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  them  under  forty  years  of  age,  in  the  full 
maturity  and  vigor  of  life.  There  are  none  in  child- 
hood, and  scarcely  any  in  old  age.  Let  the  mortali- 
ty among  them  be  compared  with  that  of  those  of 
the  same  age  in  the  community,  and  mark  the  re- 
sult. For  want  of  direct  tables  for  Philadelphia,  let 
the  deaths  in  Boston  be  taken  on  the  average  since 
1830,  between  the  ages  of  15  and  60  years,  and 
allowing  for  the  difference  above-stated  between  the 
whole  number  of  deaths  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia, 
the  result  will  be  that  in  Philadelphia,  the  deaths  be- 
tween those  ages  are  1.47  per  cent.  That  is,  where 
147  persons  between  15  and  60  die  in  the  city,  218 
die  in  the  prison.  The  deaths  in  Boston,  between 
those  ages  are  1.28  per  cent.,  so  that  it  will  be  seen, 
that  where  128  die  in  the  city,  only  119  die  in  the 
prison,  and  that  thus  the  latter  is  the  more  healthy  of 
the  two.* 

*  In  the    Penitentiary  at  Pittsburg,  in  Pennsylvania,  which   is  also 


But,  if  such  is  the  influence  of  solitary  confinement 
on  the  bodily  health,  what  must  be  its  operation  on  the 
mind,  upon  which  it  acts  more  directly  and  far  more  pow- 
erfully? It  is  such  as  might  be  feared.  There  is 
nothing,  for  which  the  system  of  solitary  labor  has 
been  more  lauded,  than  for  the  overpowering  effect 
of  the  degree  of  solitude,  which  it  necessarily  implies, 
as  administered  in  this  country,  upon  the  mind ;  and 
facts  are  often  stated,  which  prove  that  the  nerves  of 
the  convict  are  much  shaken,  and  his  mind  enfeebled ; 
and  that  he  is  in  that  state  of  debility,  in  which  reso- 
lutions of  amendment  are  very  likely  to  be  formed, 
but  very  little  likely  to  be  executed.  Messieurs  De 
Beaumont  and  De  Tocqueville,  observe,  on  their  visit 
to  one  of  the  prisoners,  No.  61,  in  the  Penitentiary  at 
Philadelphia,  that  he  could  not  speak  long  ivithoid  hdiig 
agitated,  and  shedding  tears  ;  and  timt  they  had  made  the 
same  remark  of  all  whom  they  had  previously  seen. 

The  allegation  frequently  made,  that  insanity  is 
more  readily  detected  when  it  exists  under  the  system 
of  solitary,  than  under  that  of  social  labor,  rests  ap- 
parently on  no  good  grounds.      On  the  contrary,  it 

under  the  system  of  solitary  labor,  the  number  of  prisoners  and  of  deaths 
for  the  last  five  years,  is  stated  to  have  been  as  follows  : 

Years.                             Number  of  Prisoners.  Deaths. 

1842  163  5 

1843  148  6 

1844  130  6 

1845  130  A! 

1846  126  6 

697  27 


101 


would  seem,  that  it  must  be  more  easy  to  discover 
the  state  of  mind  of  a  person,  who  is  in  the  presence 
of  the  officers  every  day,  and  all  day  long,  and  occu- 
pied as  in  Charlestown,  than  that  of  one,  who,  excepting 
the  momentary  calls  of  the  turnkey,  never  is  seen  by 
any  one  person  oftener  than  once  in  a  fortnight,  and  even 
including  those  calls,  is  not  in  the  presence  of  human 
beings  more  than  fifteen  minutes  in  a  day. 

Undoubtedly  there  may  be  cases  of  mental  derange- 
ment in  either  of  these  prisons,  as  there  are  out  of 
them,  which  shall  pass  for  some  time  undetected.  In 
the  Philadelphia  report,  for  1843,  of  four  new  cases  of 
persons  under  treatment  for  insanity  in  that  year, 
three  are  alleged  to  have  been  insane  when  admitted, 
yet  of  these,  one  is  stated  to  have  been  first  placed 
on  the  list  of  insane  patients  five  months,  one  ten 
months,  and  one  a  year  and  nine  months  after  their 
respective  commitments  to  the  prison. 

Only  one  case  which,  if  unexplained,  may  at  first 
seem  analogous  to  these,  appears  in  the  reports  from 
the  prison  at  Charlestown.  It  is  that  of  an  individual 
admitted  in  September,  1836,  but  not  kept  confined 
as  insane  until  the  following  August.  The  fact  is, 
however,  that  he  was  known  to  be  insane  when  ad- 
mitted and  stated  to  be  so  by  the  sheriff,  who  brought 
him  to  the  prison,  though  he  was  not  so  unruly  as 
to  make  constant  confinement  necessary  till  nearly  a 
year  afterwards. 

It  is  proper  to  say,  that  the  part  of  the  Philadelphia 
Physician's  Report,  for  1842,  which  should  relate  to  in- 

14 


102 


sanity,  appears  to  have  been  suppressed,  without  ex- 
planation ;  *  and  that  the  reports  of  the  two  following 
years  also,  on  this  head,  are  somewhat  confused  and 
difficult  to  be  understood ;  but  in  both  these,  as  in 
other  cases  where  the  meaning  of  any  passage  is  un- 
certain, that  construction  is  here  adopted,  which  will 
make  the  number  of  cases  of  insanity,  originating  in 
the  Philadelphia  prison,  appear  the  smallest. 

In  the  report  of  the  physician  of  that  prison  for  the 
year  1845,  he  presents,  "  the  cases  of  insanity  which 
have  been  developed  "  during  the  year,  and  in  that  for 
the  last  year,  1846,  he  says,  "  The  cases  of  insanity, 
that  are  supposed  to  have  originated  in  the  institution 

*  This  has  been  doubted  in  Paris.  But  it  has  not  been  denied  in 
Philadelphia,  a  fact,  which  alone,  under  the  circumstances,  warrants  the 
statement  in  the  text.  Another  proof  of  it  is,  that  there  are  asterisks  in 
this  Report  of  1842,  indicating  the  suppression  of  something  ;  and  that 
every  other  usual  topic  but  that  of  insanity  is  there  treated  of,  while 
not  a  word  is  said  on  this,  which  in  preceding  and  subsequent  Reports  is 
properly  dwelt  on,  as  a  matter  of  the  utmost  importance.  Nor,  is  it  at 
all  credible,  that  while  there  are  so  many  cases  in  every  other  year, 
there  should  be  none  at  all  in  this.  Besides,  in  the  Report  for  1843,  it 
is  stated,  "that  of  old  and  new,  we  have  had  to  deal,  since  1842,  with 
seven  genuine  cases,  properly  belonging,  for  aught  known  to  the  con- 
trary, to  the  institution  ;  only  one  of  them,  let  it  be  remembered,  having 
commenced  in  1843."  Did  not  these  or  some  of  them,  and  how  many- 
others,  commence  in  1842  ?  Happily  we  may  hope,  that  this  concealment 
will  soon  terminate,  for  the  Physician,  says  in  his  last  Report,  that 
though  prevented  from  fulfilling  at  that  time  his  previous  promise  to  give 
a  tabular  statement  of  all  the  cases  of  insanity,  which  had  occurred  in 
the  institution,  he  will  assuredly  do  so  in  his  next  Report.  This  is  as 
it  should  be.  And  moreover,  the  suppressed  passages  in  the  Physician's 
and  the  Moral  Instructor's  Reports  for  1842,  whether  they  relate  to  in- 
sanity or  not,  ought  to  be  published. 


103 


during  the  year,  are  presented  in  the  following  table." 
This  seems  to  imply,  that  there  were  other  cases  of 
persons  insane,  supposed  by  the  physician  not  to  have 
become  so  in  the  institution  during  the  year,  but  to 
have  been  in  that  condition  when  admitted,  which  are 
not  mentioned.  If  such  be  the  fact,  it  would  have 
been  better  to  state  the  number  of  such  cases,  as  is 
done  in  the  earlier  reports,  especially  considering  what 
is  said  in  some  of  the  other  official  reports,  from  this 
prison.  In  his  report  for  1840,  the  warden,  while 
speaking  of  those  committed  for  the  higher  classes  of 
crimes  since  the  establishment  of  the  penitentiary, 
makes  these  remarks  : 

"  I  have  alluded  to  three  deranged  persons  having  been  received 
for  the  crime  of  murder,  in  the  second  degree.  That  these  men 
were  so  deranged,  at  the  time  the  murder  was  perpetrated,  there 
is  no  doubt ;  and  these  are  not  the  only  cases  of  deranged  persons 
having  been  sent  to  the  Eastern  Penitentiary.  Many  have  been 
clearly  and  decidedly  proven  to  be  so  at  the  time  of  their  convic- 
tion. They  were,  however,  ill-disposed  and  mischievous  ;  and  the 
judges  ask  what  can  be  done  with  them  ?  Until  the  legislature 
of  Pennsylvania  shall  provide  a  suitable  asylum  for  the  indigent 
deranged,  a  measure  which  every  motive  of  policy,  of  economy, 
and  humanity  imperiously  demands,  we  must  expect  that  such 
will  be  sent  to  the  penitentiary. 

"  In  a  future  age  it  will  scarcely  be  believed,  that  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  in  a  Christian  land,  in  a  state  containing  through- 
out its  extent,  innumerable  monuments  of  piety,  of  intelligence 
and  benevolence,  that  those  whom  Providence,  in  its  mysterious 
dispensations,  had  visited  with  the  most  grievous,  the  most  appall- 
ing calamity,  the  deprivation  of  reason,  and  consequently  of  re- 
sponsibility —  that  indigent  lunatics  should  be  deprived  of  all 
sympathy,  of  all  justice,  by  the  cruelty  or  negligence  of  their  fel- 


104 


low-men  —  should  be  consigned  to  a  prison,  appropriated  only  to 
felons  of  the  vilest  degree,  where  no  friend  or  relative  could  visit 
them,  or  alleviate  their  distress,  and  where  almost  every  sur- 
rounding circumstance  is  hostile  to  their  repose,  their  comfort,  or 
their  restoration  to  reason."     Twelfth  Report,  pp.  12  and  13. 

In  the  report  of  the  physician,  for  1844,  he  says : 

"  The  fact  of  twelve  individuals,  in  the  space  of  a  single  year, 
having  been  branded  with  the  opprobrious  epithets  of  prisoner  and 
felon,  and  punished  for  crimes  of  which  they  are  legally  and 
morally  innocent,  cannot  fail  to  strike  the  philanthropist  with  dis- 
may. Yet,  so  long  as  Pennsylvania  remains  without  a  State 
asylum  for  insane  poor,  a  number  of  this  unfortunate  class  of  per- 
sons must  necessarily  be  committed  to  her  penitentiaries,  where, 
I  need  not  state,  the  provisions  are  quite  inadequate  for  their  proper 
accommodation,  but  where,  in  a  large  majority  of  cases,  all  hopes 
of  their  recovery  are  at  an  end  ;  for  however  well  qualified  prison 
discipline  may  be  for  eradicating  moral  depravity,  it  certainly  is 
not  the  sphere  in  which  we  can  hope  to  successfully  '  minister  to 
a  mind  diseased.' "     Sixteenth  Report,  p.  52. 

"  What  shall  the  judges  do  ?  "  Direct  an  acquittal. 
What  else  can  they  do  consistent  with  law  and  with 
their  duty  ?  They  have  no  more  right  to  send  such 
persons  to  prison  as  contacts,  than  they  have  to  send 
there  the  insane,  who  have  done  no  act,  which  in  a 
sane  man  would  be  criminal,  or  any  other  innocent 
man  in  the  community.  If  such  outrages  on  public 
justice  are  wilfully  committed  in  Pennsylvania,  they 
ought  to  be  set  forth  in  their  full  extent  to  the  world, 
and  especially  to  the  people  of  that  State ;  and  every 
single  instance  brought  home  to  their  knowledge,  in 
order  that  the  State  may  punish  and  correct  them, 
and   may   have    every  possible  inducement  to  make 


105 


some  provision  for  such  unfortunate  beings.  Even  if 
they  must  be  imprisoned,  let  it  be  done  by  law,  and  not 
without  law.  In  the  State  of  Massachusett§,,,wJiejBL  any 
one  is  acquitted~as  insane,  the^jm^mus^^^  so  state  in 
their  verdict,  and  on  a  verdict  of  "  not  guilty  by  reason  -^ 
of  insanity,"  the  accused  must  be  discharged,  unless  his 
going  at  large  be  deemed  manifestly  dangerous  to  the 
community,  in  which  case  he  may  be  sent  by  the*  court 
to  the  State  Hospital  for  Lunatics  at  Worcester.  No 
doubt,  insane  persons  are  sometimes  convicted  and 
sentenced  here,  but  never  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
court.  It  cannot  well  be  otherwise  when  insanity  has 
been  set  up  at  the  trial,  as  a  defence,  a  very  common 
one  of  late,  and  though  true  in  fact,  has  not  been  proved 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  jury. 

The  following  table  marked  (D.)  exhibits  the  num- 
ber of  cases  of  insanity  in  the  Philadelphia  prison 
for  the  last  ten  years,  pre^dous  to  which  time  they 
are  not  reported  with  any  kind  of  regularity ;  though 
it  appears,  that  in  1832,  of  twenty  persons  discharged, 
two  were  insane  and  one  idiotic ;  and  that  of  four, 
who  died  there  in  the  same  year,  two  were  insane. 
This  table  shows  not  the  whole  number  of  insane 
persons  existing  in  the  prison  at  one  time,  but  the 
number  of  neiv  cases  in  each  year,  distinguishing  the 
color  of  the  patient,  where  it  is  stated  in  the  reports, 
and  the  number  of  persons  appearing  to  be  insane  at 
the  time  of  theii'  admission. 


106 


(D.) 

New  cases  of  Insanity  in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Pennsylvu' 
nia,  in  each  year,  since  1836. 


Whole  nO' 

Notdistin- 

Appearing 

insane  when  admitted. 

iiNut  distiii- 

Vears. 

of  cases. 

Whites. 

Blacks. 

guished. 

Whites. 

Blacks. 

guished. 

1837 

14 

14 

1838 

18 

8 

10 

1839 

26 

13 

13 

2 

1840 

21 

21 

1841 

11 

11 

1842* 

1843 

4 

3 

1 

2 

1 

1844 

15 

10 

2 

3 

8 

1 

3 

1845 

8 

6 

2 

1846 

9 

3 

6 

126 

43 

34 

49 

12 

2 

3 

Deducl  Insnne  > 
when  adniiited.  $ 

17 

12 

2 

3 

Cases  arisinj  in  ) 
the  prison.     $ 

109 

31 

32 

46 

Now  since  it  appears,  that  where  the  color  is  dis- 
tinguished, the  number  of  whites  and  the  number  of 
blacks  becoming  insane  in  the  institution,  are  almost 
exactly  equal,  it  is  the  natural  and  necessary  pre- 
sumption, that  the  same  proportion  exists,  where  the 
color  is  not  distinguished  ;  and  of  course,  half  of  this 
undistinguished  number  46  should  be  added  to  each. 
To  the  31  kno^vn  to  be  white,  let  us  add  then  the  23 
necessarily  believed  to  be  so,  and  we  have  54  cases  of 
insanity  in  an  average  white  population,  as  appears 
from  table  (B.)  of  229. 


*  No  statement. 


107 


This  for  nine  years,  is  six  each  year,  or  26.20  new 
cases  of  insanity,  annually,  for  every  thousand  people. 
Even  if  we  suppose  that  there  was  actually  no  case  of 
insanity  in  1842,  base  our  calculation  on  ten  years 
it  would  reduce  the  average  number  of  new  cases 
among  whites  only,  from  26.20  to  23.58  in  a  thousand, 
which  does  not  at  all  affect  the  argument,  for  there 
ought  not  to  be  more  than  one  in  a  thousand.  The 
former  number  is  no  doubt  to  be  correct. 

Table  (E.)  shows  the  cases  during  the  same  time 
in  the  prison  at  Charlestown,  in  Massachusetts.  The 
report  of  the  physician  for  the  year  1838,  contains 
the  following  statement :  "  During  the  year,  one  man 
has,  in  the  estimation  of  the  physician,  become  insane. 
It  is  worthy  to  remark,  that  this  is  only  the  second  case 
of  insanity,  which  has  occurred  in  this  penitentiary 
during  the  last  ten  years,"  *  p.  38. 

*  The  third  report  of  the  Prison  Association  of  New  York,  contains 
what  purports  to  be  a  synopsis  of  all  the  reports  of  the  different  State 
Prisons  of  the  United  States,  of  which  copies  had  been  received  by  them, 
and  from  which  they  believe  that  they  have  extracted  every  important 
fact  which  can  be  necessary  for  the  elucidation  of  the  subject. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  their  collection  was  not  more  complete  ;  the 
reports  from  New  Jersey,  being  confined  to  the  year  1846,  and  those  of 
the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Pennsylvania,  to  that  and  the  preceding  year. 
Many  if  not  most  others  which  should  extend  through  several  years,  are 
also  imperfect.  But  this  is  our  common  misfortune  ;  and  as  the  fact  ap- 
pears, at  a  glance,  on  the  face  of  the  documents,  it  can  mislead  no  one. 
Very  little  observation,  however,  will  disclose  instances  of  omission  and 
inaccuracy,  of  which  the  synopsis  itself  aiFords  no  indication  or  correction, 
so  that  we  cannot  know  whether  to  rely  on  its  accuracy  in  any  particular 
case  or  not,  and  thus  its  chief  value  as  a  substitute  for  the  originals  is  lost. 
The  passage  above  cited  from  the  report  of  the  physician  of  the  State 


108 

Such  cases  occur  there  so  rarely  that  the  official  re- 
ports sometimes  omit  to  state  their  non-occurrence, 
and  the  number  of  insane  appears  only  from  the 
statement  of  the  manner  in  which  the  different  inmates 
of  the  prison  are  occupied.  This  statement  of  course, 
exhibits  the  whole  number  in  the  prison  at  the  time. 
In  order  therefore  to  ascertain  the  precise  number  of 
neAV  cases  occumng  in  each  year,  it  has  been  neces- 


prison  at  Charlestown,  is  condensed  into  the  few  followino-  words  : 
"  During  the  year,  one  man  has,  in  the  estimation  of  the  physician,  be- 
come insane."  Not  the  slightest  intimation  is  contained  in  this  synopsis, 
of  the  fact  asserted  by  the  physician  in  the  same  paragraph,  that  only  one 
case  of  insanity  had  previously  arisen  in  the  prison  for  ten  years.  Now  the 
maker  of  the  synopsis  might  have  disbelieved  this  assertion,  and  if  so, 
might  have  noted  his  disbelief  of  it,  though  it  is  not  disbelieved  on  the 
spot ;  but  professing  to  present  a  document  containing  every  important 
statement  of  fact,  he  ought  not  to  have  omitted  this,  which  is  certainly 
far  from  unimportant. 

In  the  synopsis  of  the  physician's  report  for  the  Pittsburgh  prison,  in 
the  year  1845,  it  is  said,  "  In  the  report  of  the  prison  for  the  year  1843, 
Dr.  Smith  states,  that  from  January,  1839,  to  January,  1844,  there  had 
been  525  convicts  in  the  prison,  and  from  this  number  but  one  case  of  in- 
sanity is  recorded."  If  this  last  assertion  is  here  meant  to  be  ascribed  to 
Dr.  Smith,  we  find  in  the  synopsis  of  his  report  for  that  year,  contained 
in  this  work,  no  such  statement.  And  whether  it  be  intended  to  be 
ascribed  to  him  or  not,  it  would  appear  from  the  same  synopsis  to  be  in- 
correct ;  inasmuch  as  the  physician's  report  there  for  the  year  1840,  in  enu- 
merating the  diseases  of  prisoners,  contracted  in  prison,  during  that  single 
year,  specifies  no  less  than  3  of  dementia.  Can  this  be  so  in  the  originals  1 
When  the  original  reports  from  the  same  prison  directly  contradict  each 
other,  it  should  be  noted,  otherwise  we  cannot  be  sure,  that  the  mistake  is 
not  confined  to  the  synopsis.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  that  the  Association  will 
cause  it  to  be  revised  and  corrected,  and  continue  their  endeavors  to  ex- 
tend it ;  for  if  its  execution  were  worthy  of  its  admirable  design,  no  more 
valuable  contribution  could  be  rendered  to  this  science  in  America. 


109 


sary  to  recur  to  the  records  which,  while  they 
exhibit  notliing  inconsistent  with  the  published  re- 
ports, enable  me  to  present  a  table  showing  the  new 
cases  in  each  year,  and  whether  they  originated  in  the 
prison  or  not,  similar  to  that  which  has  been  deduced 
from  the  official  reports  of  the  State  prison  of  Pliiladel- 
phia ;  and  for  the  same  time. 

The  law  appointing  a  commission  for  the  removal  of 
insane  persons  from  the  prison  to  the  State  Hospital 
at  Worcester,  was  passed  in  1844,  and  in  the  course  of 
that  year,  seven  were  thus  removed;  the  five  men- 
tioned in  the  table,  and  two  more  admitted  in  the 
same  condition  in  1829  and  1836. 

(E.) 

New  cases  of  insanity  in  the  Penitentiary  at  Charlestown,  Massa- 
chusetts,  in  each  year  since  1836. 


sent  to  hospital  at  Worcester, 
sent  to  hospital  at  Worcester. 


Whole 
numbe  . 

Insane 

when 

admitted. 

1837 

0 

183S 

1 

1839 

0 

1840 

1 

1 

1841 

0 

1842 

0 

1843 

1 

1 

1844 

2 

2 

1845 

1 

1846 

1 

1 

7 

5 

Deduct  insane  ) 
when  admitted.  J 

5 

2 

sent  to  hospital  at  Worcester, 
sent  to  hospital  at  Worcester, 
cured  in  prison, 
delirium  tremens,  cured  in  prison. 


It  appears  then,  that  only  two  cases  of  insanity 
have  originated  in  the  prison  at  Charlestown  during 


110 


ten  years  past,  which  is  one  in  1474,  less  than  one  in 
a  thousand,  accurately  .68  in  1000;  so  that  the  cases 
of  insanity  thus  originating  among  the  white  prisoners 
alone  in  Philadelphia,  have  been  almost  thirty-six  times 
as  many,  as  'among  all  the  prisoners,  white  and  black, 
at  Charlestown.  Of  the  two  patients  cured  in  the 
Charlestown  prison,  instead  of  being  sent  to  the  State 
Hospital,  one,  having  recovered  his  tranquillity  before 
the  commissioners  met,  requested  that  he  might  be 
allowed  to  remain  there  and  work.  His  request  was 
granted  and  he  soon  regained  liis  health.  The  other 
was  admitted  in  a  doubtful  state  of  sanity,  occasioned 
by  the  long  continued  use  of  ardent  spmts,  and  was 
entirely  cured  by  the  regimen  of  the  prison,  in  a  few 
weeks. 

It  would  be  idle  to  ascribe  the  immense  difference 
between  these  two  prisons  in  this  respect  to  climate  or 
to  any  circumstance  connected  with  their  geographical 
position  or  other  local  cause,  for  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  there  is  more  insanity  among  the  pop- 
ulation at  large  near  Philadelphia,  than  near  Boston. 
The  census  of  1840  would  make  it  appear,  that  there 
is  a  great  deal  less  in  Pennsylvania  than  in  Massachu- 
setts, the  difference  being  nearly  as  58  to  81 ;  but  the 
details  of  this  census  are  little  to  be  relied  on,  it  is 
probable  the  proportion  of  insane  is  about  the  same 
in  both.  Dr.  Brigham,  superintendent  of  the  Re- 
treat for  the  insane  at  Hartford,  says,  that  "in  the 
year  1835  there  were  received  into  three  of  the  insti- 
tutions of  Massachusetts  from  that  State  alone  124 


Ill 


patients  who  became  crazy  that  year"  and  estimates 
that  this  was  not  more  than  half  the  number  who  be- 
came insane  during  that  time.  Twice  that  number,  or 
248,  would  be  one  in  3000,  which  seems  a  low  estimate. 

Sir  Benjamin  Brodie,  one  of  the  commissioners  for 
Pentonville,  states  that  in  that  prison,  which  was 
first  opened  in  December,  1842,  the  cases  of  insanity 
in  the  first  year  were  a  little  more  than  9  in  1000 ; 
but  that  this  excessive  proportion  was  occasioned  by 
peculiar  causes,  which  after  that  year  ceased  to  operate. 
He  does  not  say  what  they  were.  The  insanity  for 
the  three  years  since  has  been  about  as  1.48  to  1000, 
or  very  nearly  one  in  seven  hundred ;  and  he  doubts 
whether  this  is  more  than  in  the  population  at  large. 
He  means  cases  of  positive  insanity,  not  including  par- 
tial delusions. 

If  this  be  taken  as  the  rate  in  England,  though 
there  are  obvious  reasons  for  believing  that  the  rate 
here  is  less  than  there,  we  could  hardly  put  it  so 
low  as  1  in  3000,  less  than  a  quarter  part  of  the  num- 
ber. It  would  seem  extravagant  to  put  ours  lower  than 
1  in  1000,  or  about  two-thirds  of  the  insane  persons 
that  there  are  in  England,  in  proportion  to  the  popula- 
tion. But  this  would  give  800  new  cases  of  insanity 
every  year  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  120,  or 
10  every  month,  in  Boston  alone.  This  is  obviously 
too  much  ;  and  perhaps  Sir  Benjamin  may  be  mistaken 
in  the  conjecture,  that  the  rate  in  Pentonville  prison,  viz. 
1.48,  is  not  greater  than  in  the  population  at  large ; 
for  this  would  give  more  than  21,000  new  cases  in 


112 


England  and  Wales  every  year ;  and  in  London  and  its 
suburbs  alone  nearly  2700,  more  than  50  every  week; 
a  number  not  credible  without  further  evidence. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  estimate  of  Dr.  Brigham,  of 
one  in  3000,  making  only  248  for  Massachusetts,  and 
40  for  Boston,  seems  too  small,  considering  what  a 
large  i)roportion  of  the  insane  are  cured,  with  our  pre- 
sent means  and  appliances,  during  the  first  year  of  their 
illness.  Perhaps  1  in  2000,  or  400  to  Massachusetts 
and  60  to  Boston  annually,  is  the  lowest  rate,  that  can 
justly  be  assumed,  as  1  in  1000  is  certainly  the  high- 
est. The  rate  in  the  prison  is  very  little  more  than 
one  in  1500,  viz.  one  in  1474.  It  is  not  intended  to 
found  any  precise  conclusion  on  the  fact  that  this  is 
so  nearly  midway  between  the  two  extremes  ;  but  it 
authorizes  the  assertion,  that  on  comparing  the  cases 
arising  in  the  prison,  with  the  most  reasonable  esti- 
mates of  those  in  the  rest  of  the  community,  it  does  not 
appear  that  insanity  within  the  prison  here  is  greater 
than  elsewhere  in  the  vicinity. 

It  win  be  observed  that  the  rate  of  insanity  spoken 
of  by  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  as  excessive,  and  as  only  to 
be  accounted  for  by  peculiar  causes,  is  hardly  more 
than  one-third  of  the  ordinary  average  rate  in  Philar 
delphia.  If  this  last  prevailed  throughout  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  there  would  arise  in  that  State  more  than 
45,000  new  cases  of  insanity  every  year ;  and  in  the  city 
and  county  of  Philadelphia  alone  more  than  6,700,  a 
proportion  exceeding  that  of  deaths  in  the  prison  there, 
though  tliis  is  so  much  greater  than  among  persons  of 


113 


the  same  age  in  its  vicinity,  exceeding,  indeed,  that  of 
deaths  in  the  whole  population,  including  infancy  and 
old  age,  which  have  no  counterparts  in  the  prison.  At 
the  same  rate,  there  would  be  nearly  21,000  new  cases 
of  insanity  annually  in  Massachusetts,  and  about  3,144 
in  Boston,  a  number  far  exceeding  that  of  the  deaths. 
What  would  become  of  us,  if  our  weekly  list  of  deaths 
were  accompanied  by  a  still  longer  list  of  insanities, 
and  it  were  known,  that  this  was  not  a  rare  calamity, 
but  the  ordinary  course  of  events  here?  This  city 
would  be  at  once  depopulated.  Yes,  even  Boston.  Its 
inhabitants  would  flee  from  it,  as  from  the  seat  of  a 
pestilence. 

Such  are  the  necessary  deductions  from  the  expe- 
rience of  Pennsylvania  and  that  of  Massachusetts.  To 
ascribe  the  difference  between  the  results  of  the  two 
as  to  health  and  sanity  to  any  local  causes,  would  be 
too  absurd  for  refutation.  To  ascribe  them  to  any 
cause  whatever  not  local,  has  not  the  slightest  effect 
upon  the  argument.  For  if  that  cause,  be  it  what  it 
may,  be  equally  frequent  under  both  systems,  it  must 
produce  the  same  consequences  in  both,  and  cannot 
account  for  any  difference  in  their  results.  If,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  most  frequent  under  one  system,  then 
this  greater  frequency  itself,  and  all  its  consequences, 
are  justly  to  be  ascribed  to  that  system. 

But  the  tables  above  given,  appalling  as  they  are, 
do  not  afford  the  full  measure  of  this  evil ;  for  it  is 
most  important  to  remark  that  they  contain  no  cases 
but  those  of  actual  death  or  insanity.     No  case  of  debil- 


114 


ity  or  disease,  bodily  or  mental,  is  entered  here,  until 
it  reacli  that  last  extremity.  Now  is  it  possible  to  be- 
lieve that  there  are  no  such  cases,  that  all  those,  who 
have  not  attained  this  fatal  consummation,  are  full  of 
health  and  vigor,  and  able  to  go  forth  and  battle  man- 
fully with  the  world  ?  It  cannot  be.  Many  more 
must  be  treading  the  dark  and  downward  path,  who 
are  yet  more  or  less  distant  from  its  end.  It  is  the 
natural,  nay,  it  is  the  r.ecessary  presumption,  that  a 
mode  of  treatment  which  utterly  destroys  the  health 
and  reason  of  so  many,  cannot  leave  those  of  others  en- 
tirely unimpaired.  Is  it  consistent  with  justice  or  human- 
ity to  inflict  a  punishment  which  has  this  tendency  ? 

The  experience  of  New  Jersey,  the  only  other  State 
of  the  Union,  in  wliich  the  system  of  solitary  labor  now 
exists,  is  not  less  instructive.  This  system  was  intro- 
duced there  in  October,  1836.  The  first  report,  made 
in  November  of  the  following  year,  is  a  picture  of  com- 
plete success  ',  the  moral  condition  of  the  convicts  and 
the  efficiency  of  the  punishment  are  spoken  of  as  pecu- 
liarly gratifjdng ;  there  had  been  little  sickness  and  no 
death;  and  there  had  been  preaching  almost  every 
Sunday  by  the  clergy  of  Trenton,  and  visits  from  other 
pious  persons.  We  are  even  told  that  the  convicts  re- 
moved from  the  old  prison  to  the  new,  almost  to  a  man, 
regret  that  they  were  ever  placed  at  social  labor,  and 
dread  meeting  their  old  associates  in  crime  after  their 
discharge.  "  This  simple  fact"  —  as  the  Inspectors  are 
pleased  to  call  it,  though  it  can  be  nothing  more  than 
their  opinion,  and  this  founded  on  no  better  evidence 


115 


than  the  representations  of  the  convicts  themselves, 
which,  on  such  a  point,  are  peculiarly  worthless — "this 
simple  fact  alone  speaks  volumes  as  to  the  vast  superi- 
ority of  separate  confinement  with  lahor  and  instruction, 
in  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  convict,  over  every 
system  of  prison  discipline  that  we  have  any  knowledge 
of." 

With  the  unqualified  preference  of  their  own  system, 
in  all  respects,  to  every  other  so  often  exhibited  by  re- 
formers, especially  in  the  newness  of  their  reform,  the 
inspectors  make  the  following  remarks  : 

"  But  when  we  turn  to  the  moral  degradation,  too  glaring  in 
those  cells,  where  the  miserable  inmate  has  never  been  blessed 
with  even  the  rudiments  of  moral  culture,  would  you  witness  the 
stern  severity  of  the  Pennsylvanian  system  of  separate  confinement 
with  labor,  in  its  most  appalling  form,  you  will  find  it  there  ;  where 
the  unfortunate  victim  of  neglected  education  is  placed,  by  his 
violation  of  a  law,  of  which,  perchance,  he  is  ignorant ;  without  one 
ray  of  hope  glimmering  upon  his  benighted  mind,  save  the  occa- 
sional instruction  he  receives  from  a  keeper,  the  casual  official 
visitors  who  may  chance  to  call  upon  him,  or  the  distant  voice  of 
the  minister  of  the  gospel,  in  his  labor  of  love  on  Sabbath  after- 
noon. All  else  to  him  is  one  vast  vacuum  ;  the  mind  has  nothing 
else  to  rest  on  for  relief;  labor  and  sleep  are  his  only  comforters  ; 
and,  in  his  distress  of  mind,  he  either  sinks  down  into  stupidity,  an 
object  more  of  pity  than  of  punishment,  or,  reckless  of  life,  in  his 
narrow  cell,  he  sets  the  majesty  of  the  law  at  defiance,  resists  the 
authority  of  his  keepers,  and  subjects  himself  to  the  salutary  re- 
straints necessary  to  sustain  good  order  in  the  institution." 

But  in  the  very  next  year,  the  fact  that  the  health 
and  intellect  of  the  convicts  are  seriously  affected  in 
the  prison,  is  fairly  stated  j  though  there  seems  to  be 


116 


a  disposition,  then  and  for  some  years  afterwards,  to 
ascribe  it  to  any  cause  but  the  true  one.  It  appears  that 
during  the  second  year  the  deaths  were  three  per  cent; 
and  we  have  the  following  statement  from  the  physician: 

"The  close  confinement  of  prisoners  in  the  New  Jersey  Peni- 
tentiary, so  different  from  that  of  the  old  prison,  must  give  rise  to 
the  question,  whether  being  debarred  from  open  air,  sunlight,  and 
suitable  exercise,  does  not  produce  derangements  of  the  system  of 
a  peculiar  character.  From  the  observations  of  the  past  year,  I  am 
convinced  that  there  are  diseases  peculiar  to  the  prison,  and  which 
will  make  the  report  less  favorable  to  the  health  in  the  institution 
than  what  is  expected. 

"  The  tendency  to  glandular  obstruction  is  seen  in  almost  every 
prisoner  who  has  been  confined  in  the  cells  for  more  than  a  year, 
when  he  is  in  the  least  degree  indisposed.  The  complexion  is 
pale,  of  a  dropsical  hue,  such  as  continued  shade  almost  always  pro- 
duces, and  the  symptoms  of  disease  of  the  internal  organs  are  of 
the  character  that  mark  the  languid  action  which  prevails  under 
such  circumstances.  Some  fost  mortem  examinations  have  been 
made,  and  in  all  of  them  the  lymphatic  glands  were  enlarged  to 
an  enormous  degree,  indurated  and  obstructed.  There  is  reason  to 
believe,  had  these  deaths  occurred  in  out-of-door  practice,  the  same 
state  of  this  important  part  of  the  system  would  not  have  been 
found.  The  obscure  pains  and  dyspeptic  symptoms  that  trouble 
many  of  the  prisoners,  are  owing,  no  doubt,  to  similar  obstructions, 
which  must  be  regarded  as  the  effect  of  solitary  confinement,  such 
as  obtains  in  the  New  Jersey  Penitentiary.  The  ranges  of  cells 
that  have  a  southern  exposure,  and  into  which  a  small  portion  of 
direct  sunlight  is  admitted,  are  the  most  healthy.  In  them  there  is 
less  disease  than  in  the  others. 

"  The  effect  of  solitary  confinement  upon  the  mind  deserves 
some  notice.  In  many  instances  there  is  remarked  that  weakness 
of  intellect  which  results  from  an  unexercised  mind.  The  nervous 
system  must  suffer  with  the  other  parts  of  the  body,  from  the 
causes  already  mentioned.     If  the  prisoner's  mind,  on  his  admis- 


ir 


sion  into  the  cell,  has  not  been  of  a  reflective  character,  and  capa- 
ble of  exercising  itself  on  abstract  subjects,  imbecility  is  soon 
manifested,  which  leads  him  to  amuse  himself  in  the  most  childlike 
employments.  If  this  confinement  were  continued  for  many 
years,  such  individuals  would,  no  doubt,  become  permanently  in- 
jured in  their  faculties." 

The  Inspectors,  however,  think  differently,  and  their 
remark  upon  the  subject  is  this  : 

"  The  influence  of  close  confinement,  and  the  expulsion  of  the 
sun's  rays  on  the  health  of  the  prisoners,  is  a  subject  which  has 
particularly  engaged  the  attention  of  the  physician,  and  to  his  re- 
port we  respectfully  refer  you  for  the  result  of  his  observation. 
On  this  subject  we  will  remark,  however,  that  we  have  seen  no  evi- 
dence of  the  ruinous  effects  on  the  constitutions  of  the  convicts, 
which  have  been  ascribed  to  this  mode  of  imprisonment.  The 
prisoners  generally  present  a  pale  and  rather  unhealthy  appearance  ; 
but  this,  we  believe,  is  in  consequence  of  living  entirely  in  the 
shade,  and  not  an  effect  of  disease.  In  corroboration  of  this,  we 
have  observed  that  some  who  present  this  appearance  most  strong- 
ly, enjoy  uninterrupted  health." 

In  the  third  year  the  Report  of  the  Physician  con- 
tains the  following  observations. 

"  There  are  some  among  the  convicts,  who  came  from  the  old 
prison.  While  there  they  were  in  strong  health,  and  for  the  first 
two  years,  in  this  penitentiary,  complained  little.  Now  they  have 
become  debilitated,  are  languid,  and  exhibit  decided  symptoms  of 
a  decline  of  their  physical  powers. 

"  Among  the  prisoners  are  many  cases  of  insanity.  Some  on 
their  admission  showed  symptoms  of  derangement,  and  since  then 
have  continued  in  the  same  state." 

And  again ; 

"  Among  the  prisoners  there  are  many,  who  exhibit  a  childlike 
simplicity,  which  shows  them  to  be  less  acute  than  when  they  en- 

16 


118 

tered.  In  all  who  have  been  more  than  a  year  in  the  prison,  some 
of  these  effects  have  been  observed.  Continue  the  confinement  far 
a  longer  time,  and  give  them  no  other  exercise  of  the  mental  facul- 
ties than  this  kind  of  imprisonment  affords,  and  the  most  accom- 
plished  rogue  icill  lose  his  capacity  for  depredating  with  success 
upon  the  community.'''' ! ! 

In  the  report  for  the  fourth  year  we  have  the  foUow- 
ing  statements  of  the  physician : 

"  The  effect  of  solitary  confinement  on  the  prisoners  in  this  in- 
stitution is  well  determined,  however  different  it  may  seem  from 
what  is  reported  of  other  similar  establishments.  As  the  punish- 
ment is  carried  out  in  this  place,  the  result  upon  the  convict  is  a 
diminished  force  of  his  organs  generally  ;  and  particularly  a  weak- 
ening of  the  muscular  fibre  ;  obstruction  of  lymphatic  glands,  and 
vitiated  nervous  action.  The  mind  suffers,  in  this  state  of  the 
organs,  when  absolute  derangement  does  not  take  place. 

"  In  this  prison,  as  much  attention  is  paid  to  the  health  of  the 
convicts  as  the  nature  of  their  confinement  will  admit.  Whole- 
some food,  abundantly  supplied,  sufficient  clothing,  cleanliness, 
kind  treatment,  all  tend  to  make  their  situation  as  comfortable  as 
possible.  When  sickness  requires  a  departure  from  the  law,  the 
convict  has  a  nurse  in  his  cell,  or  he  has  the  privilege  of  taking 
the  air  in  the  yard.  As  far,  then,  as  this  mode  of  treatment  ex- 
tends, eveiy  opportunity  is  afforded  to  make  the  system  of  punish- 
ment tolerable.  But  still  the  injurious  effects  are  a  constant  cause 
of  complaint  among  the  prisoners ;  and  as  they  are  making  appli- 
cations for  pardon  on  this  ground  more  than  an}-  other,  the  physi- 
cian is  constantly  solicited  for  certificates  of  health,  under  the  be- 
lief that  his  statements  will  go  far  to  induce  the  court  to  suppose  a 
further  confinement  will  destroy  the  life  of  the  petitioner.  Some 
have  been  pardoned  for  this  reason,  who  have  died  soon  after  they 
left  the  prison. 

"As  the  tendency  of  the  present  system  is  injurious  to  the  health 
of  the  convict,  such  alterations  ought  to  be  made  in  the  arrange- 


119 


ments  of  the  prison  as  will  insure  the  greatest  degree  of  health, 
consistently  with  the  plan  of  solitary  confinement.  Some  change 
ought  to  be  made  in  heating  and  ventilating  the  cells.  This  is  im- 
periously demanded.  Confinement  in  a  small,  urrv'entilated  room 
will  produce  anywhere,  and  on  almost  any  animal,  the  very  effects 
which  have  been  observed  in  our  penitentiary.  Some  pathologists 
have  lately  been  trying  experiments  on  animals  to  prove  the  defects 
of  a  sufficiency  of  air  and  light,  and  the  results  of  all  their  trials  have 
been  a  development  of  tubercles  in  the  lungs,  and  glandular  obstruc- 
tions —  the  very  state  of  the  organs  that  is  produced  in  our  prison. 
It  was  said  in  a  former  report,  that  2)ost  mortem  examinations  had 
shown  excessive  glandular  obstructions  ;  and  also,  that  of  all  dis- 
eases, those  of  the  chest  were  the  most  unmanageable. 

"  There  are  now  amongst  the  152  prisoners,  12  deranged  men. 
More  than  half  of  these  were  fit  for  a  Lunatic  Asylum  when  they 
were  received.  Instead  of  receiving  any  benefit  from  their  con- 
finement, they  became  confirmed  in  their  malady." 

Li  the  sixth  report  of  the  physician  we  have  the 

conckision  of  the  whole  matter. 

"  Knowing  the  circumstances,  under  which  mind  and  body  suffer 
most,  care  is  taken  to  avoid  all  such  evil,  as  far  as  practicable. 
And  now,  while  we  admit  the  enervating  tendency  of  solitary  con- 
finement, we  can  report  for  the  last  year  no  death  amongst  an 
average  of  141  prisoners.  There  have  been  but  a  few  on  the  sick 
list  at  any  time  during  the  year,  and  no  case  of  insanity  has  origi- 
nated in  the  house  during  this  time." 

The  cause  of  this  great  and  extraordinary  change 
may  be  learned  from  the  physician  himself. 

"  These  very  favorable  results  arc  to  be  attributed  to  the  con- 
stant employment  furnished  the  convicts,  and  also  to  the  treatment 
the  prisoner  receives  on  the  first  appearance  of  disease.  If  his 
mind  begin  to  fail,  and  he  shows  symptoms  of  derangement, 
another  convict  is  put  with  him  in  his  cell.     This  invariably  re- 

STORES  THE  PATIENT." 


120 


The  uniform  success  of  the  remedy  shows  the  true 
cause  of  the  evil ;  as  the  nature  of  the  remedy  shows 
its  extent.  Enormous,  indeed,  must  that  evil  have 
been,  if  the  remedy  was  not  worse  than  the  disease.  It 
is  certainly  a  striking  instance  of  blind  attachment  to  a 
theory,  of  obstinate  adherence  to  a  single  idea,  that,  — 
in  order  to  prevent  the  corruption,  which  is  assumed  to 
be  the  result  of  the  few  stolen  words,  which  may  be 
exchanged,  during  social  labor,  under  vigilant  inspec- 
tion by  day, —  convicts  should  be  allowed  unrestrained, 
unwatched,  unlimited  intercourse  during  the  w^hole  night. 

It  will  be  said,  however,  that  this  indulgence  in 
cases  where  alarming  symptoms  appear,  is  not  the 
system  itself,  but  only  an  exception  to  it.  This  is  ad- 
mitted, but  even  as  such,  it  is  liable  to  these  objections : 

1.  That  depending  on  the  arbitrary  discretion  of  an 
officer,  it  must  lead  to  individual  preferences,  and 
to  inequalities  of  punishment,  at  different  times  and 
places  under  the  same  government,  which  would  be 
inconvenient  and  unjust. 

2.  That  it  is  an  exception;  and  provides  only 
for  cases  in  which  alarming  symptoms  threaten  the 
reason  or  the  life  of  the  convict,  and  not  for  the  far 
greater  number,  who  exhibit  no  terrific  indications  of 
disease ;  but  whose  nerves  and  bodily  and  mental 
faculties,  lose  all  their  firmness,  elasticity  and  \\goY, 
and  are  reduced  to  that  state  of  depression  and  de- 
bility which,  though  it  has  sometimes  been  deemed 
one  of  the  best  results  of  this  system,  tends  in  fact  to 
disqualify  them  utterly  for  the  active  duties  and  labors 


121 

of  life,  by  rendering  tliem  incapable  of  firm  purposes 
or  persevering  efforts  of  any  kind. 

3.  That  the  most  artful  and  inveterate  criminals, 
those  most  disposed  to  boasting  of  the  past,  to  imme- 
diate corruption,  and  to  schemes  of  mischief  for  the 
future,  will  find  it  easy,  by  simulating  insanity  or 
disease,  to  obtain  inthnate  and  unrestricted  intercourse 
"with  others  by  night ;  for  after  the  general  rule  is  once 
dispensed  with,  the  scrutin}^  in  each  particular  case  is 
not  likely,  on  such  a  question  as  this,  to  be  very 
searchino' ;  and  thus  such  intercourse  will  in  fact  take 
place,  in  those  cases  where  it  will  be  the  most  pernicious, 
and  be  precluded  only  where  it  would  be  the  least  so. 

4.  That  a  system,  which  requires  any  exceptions  at 
all  of  this  nature,  is  in  itself  an  intolerable  system. 

In  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  the  system  of  solitary 
labor  was  once  established,  but  after  about  four  years 
trial,  abandoned.  There,  as  in  other  places,  high  ex- 
pectations of  success  were  indulged  in  the  outset, 
and  apparently  confirmed  by  the  first  years  expe- 
rience, although  they  were  not  expressed  with  the  en- 
tu'e  and  unqualified  assurance  so  often  noticed  else- 
where. Prisoners  were  first  admitted  in  November 
1838.  The  first  report  of  the  inspectors  contains 
nothing  touching  the  effects  of  the  system  upon  the 
convicts  ;  the  second,  made  in  October  1839,  has  the 
following  remarks : 

"  It  is  as  yet  but  the  very  commencement  of  an  experiment  in 
this  State  to  diminish  crime  and  reform  criminals.  There  is  good 
reason  to  anticipate  successful  results,  and  to  believe,  that  it  may 
be  carried  on  without  pecuniary  loss  to  the  State  for  the  support 
of  its  convicts." 


122 


Again  : 

"  Of  the  effect  of  the  discipline  and  regimen  of  the  State  prison 
upon  the  convicts,  the  inspectors  have  a  very  favorable  opinion. 
Experience  shows  it  to  be  beneficial  rather  than  injurious  to 
health." 

Ill  the  tliii'd  report,  in  Octolber,  1840,  the  physician 
says,  that  there  had  been  a  great  amount  of  sickness, 
and  mentions  as  causes  of  it  bad  ventilation,  occasioned 
by  stopping  the  flues  to  retain  the  heat,  and  the  want 
of  more  air  and  exercise  than  the  discipline  of  the 
prison  would  allow.  In  the  next  report  are  found  the 
following  remarks  of  the  inspectors : 

"  By  the  warden's  report  it  will  be  perceived,  that  the  labor 
done  in  the  prison  is  not  a  source  of  profit  to  the  State.  This  re- 
sults partly  from  the  fact,  that  solitary  confinement  prevents  con- 
stant inspection.  Many  are  inclined  to  be  idle,  and  the  under- 
signed believe  that  the  cases,  in  which  the  taking  away  of  labor 
would  be  considered  by  the  convicts  to  be  a  hardship,  are  very  rare." 

"  The  inspectors  further  repoi't,  that  the  experiment  of  solitary 
confinement  has  not,  since  the  prison  has  been  in  operation, 
proved  perfectly  satisfactory.  They  fear  the  effect  is  to  injure 
strong  minds,  and  to  produce  imbecility  or  insanity  in  those  that 
are  weak.  They  recommend  your  honorable  body  to  consider 
if  you  ought  not  to  direct  the  erection  of  workshops,  in  which 
the  convicts  may  be  compelled  to  labor,  under  constant  supei-vision." 

The  fifth  report  of  the  inspectors,  contains  this 
passage  : 

"  The  affairs  of  the  prison  have  been  conducted  on  the  same 
plan  as  during  the  previous  year.  Since  the  passage  of  the  law, 
authorizing  corporal  punishment,  no  case  has  occurred  to  require 
its  infliction  ;  but  the  advantage  of  possessing  the  authority  is  ap- 
parent.    The  undersigned,  respectfully  renew  their  recommenda- 


123 


tion,  that  you  would  cause  a  full  examination  to  be  made  both  of 
the  State  prison  and  county  jail,  with  a  view  to  deciding  whether 
the  present  mode  of  separate  confinement  is  not  expensive  to  the 
State,  and  injurious  to  the  minds  of  the  convicts." 

In  the  year  1843,  the  system  of  solitary  labor  wa; 
abolished  by  law,  and  that  of  social  labor  substituted 
with  satisfactory  results.     The  warden  of  the  prison 
in  Rhode  Island,  who  was  also  a  physician,  states,  in  a 
report,  dated  October  30,  1844,  the  result  of  his  ob 
servations  on  the  numerous  cases  of  insanity,  produced 
there    by   separate    confinement.      He   considers   this 
disease  to  be  somewhat  analogous  in  its  character  to  I 
the  delirium   tremens,  the  latter  being  occasioned   by 
the  sudden  withdrawal  of  an  unnatural  but  habitual 
stimulus ;  while  the  former  arises  from  the  privation 
of  society,  not  only  an  habitual,  but  a  natural  stimu-l 
lus,  and  one  necessary  to  the  healthy  action  of  the  \^ 
brain.    He  states,  that  this  insanity  for  the  most  part  ap-  { 
peared  after  a  confinement  of  from  six  to  eigMeen  months.*  J 

To  aU  this  it  will  be  answered,  as  it  has  been  to  like 
statements, —  "  That  the  separate  system  does  not  pro- 
liibit  any  amount  of  society,  but  only  the  society  of 
convicts.  It  admits  as  many  visits  as  are  requisite 
from  virtuous  persons."  It  admits  them,  indeed.  But 
does  it  provide  for  them  ?  Or  can  it  do  so  ?  For 
it  is  not  an  abstract  theory,  but  a  practicable  sj^stem, 
which  it  is  my  purpose  to  consider.  Let  us  first  see 
what  is  in  fact  done  in  Philadelphia ;  for  it  is  not 
easy  to  believe,  that  what  is  not  done  in  that  great  and 

*  See  Appendix,  No.  II, 


124 


benevolent  city  for  its  favorite  institution,  is  likely  to 
be  done  anj^where  else  in  America.  Mrs.  Farnham, 
the  highly  intelligent  Matron  of  the  female  depart- 
ment, in  the  penitentiary  at  Sing  Sing,  in  Nev?-  York, 
having  visited  that  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  year  1846, 
makes  the  following  statement : 

"  Great  pains  have  been  taken  by  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia 
and  other  parts  of  the  State,  since  the  erection  of  this  prison,  to 
give  the  system  introduced  there  its  highest  efficacy.  Their  hu- 
manity and  zeal  are  well  known,  and  have  been  the  theme  of 
too  frequent  and  warm  praise  to  require  notice  from  me.  This 
prison  and  its  system  of  discipline  have  together  constituted  an 
object  of  peculiar  and  earnest  interest  in  Pennsylvania.  Its 
original  design  was  to  inflict  a  greater  degree  of  punishment  than 
could  be  procured  under  the  associate  system.  Its  primary  char- 
acter and  aim  have,  however,  been  much  modified,  and  the  desire 
to  separate  the  criminal  from  his  associates  for  purposes  of  pun- 
ishment, has  gradually  been  supplanted  by  the  theory  of  secluding 
him  from  the  influence  of  vicious  associates,  for  the  purposes  of 
moral  regeneration.  His  position  is  now  declared  to  be,  not  a 
solitary,  but  a  separate  one  ;  that  is,  separate  from  his  associates 
in  crime,  from  men  equally  abandoned,  or  worse  than  himself. 
All  this  seems  very  rational,  and  would  be  in  fact  so,  and  there- 
fore liable  to  little  objection,  if  with  this  separation  a  sufficient 
amount  of  stimulus  and  exercise  could  be  afforded  to  the  nervous 
system  and  the  mental  powers  generally  of  the  criminal.  But 
these,  it  will  be  confessed,  must  flow  to  a  large  extent,  from  ming- 
ling with  his  fellow  beings ;  from  participating  in  their  thoughts 
and  emotions,  from  sharing  their  labors,  from  sympathizing  with 
their  afflictions,  and  being  made  glad  by  their  joys. 

"  In  an  examination  of  this  system,  therefore,  one  of  my  par- 
ticular objects  was  to  ascertain  what  amount  of  social  intercourse 
was  afforded  to  those  who  were  placed  under  its  operation.  With 
the  advantages  which  I  have  named,  it  would  be  idle  to  suppose 


126 


that  a  state  of  things  more  favorable  to  a  liberal  and  sound  ad- 
ministration of  the  system  will  be  anywhere  realized  than  in 
Philadelphia.  I  was  exceedingly  interested,  therefore,  to  ascertain 
how  far  all  these  advantages  permitted  the  prisoner  to  conform  to 
the  laws  of  his  mental  being,  in  respect  to  the  particulars  which  I 
have  named.  The  largest  average  which  was  given  me  of  the 
time  spent  by  each  person  in  social  intercourse,  was  by  the  warden. 
He  thought  it  might  be  fifteen  minutes  of  each  twenty  four  hours  — 
perhaps  toith  a  great  majority  not  so  much.  Those  prisoners 
with  whom  I  spoke,  thought  seven  minutes  would  be  a  large  state- 
ment of  the  amount  of  time  spent  by  them  in  society  !  A  few 
who  were  peculiarly  situated  gave  much  more  than  this.  But 
these  were  exceptions,  existing  under  temporary  and  precarious 
causes.  The  periods  of  imprisonment  range,  in  most  countries, 
from  one  year  or  less  to  the  length  of  the  natural  life.  For  terms 
of  time,  therefore,  varying  from  those  of  short  duration  to  the 
whole  of  the  natural  life,  persons  condemned  to  this  system  must 
suffer  a  solitude  so  entire,  that  fifteen  minutes  out  of  each  twenty- 
four  hours  will  include  the  entire  time  spent  in  the  presence  or 
communion  of  a  fellow-being  !  At  least  such  must  be  their  con- 
dition until  a  state  of  society  is  found  very  much  in  advance  of 
any  now  known."  Rationale  of  Crime,  edited  by  E.  W. 
Farnham,  1846,  pp.  132,  133. 

The  physician  of  the  Eastern  Penitentiary,  makes 
also  in  his  report  for  1845,  this  statement : 

"  On  the  intercourse  of  the  convicts  with  the  inspectors,  warden, 
moral  instructor,  schoolmaster,  apothecary,  and  physician,  I  shall 
not  enlarge  ;  suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  bi-weekly  visits  of  acting 
inspectors,  enable  them  to  see  all  in  confinement  at  least  twice 
during  their  two  months  on  duty.  The  moral  instructor  and 
schoolmaster,  devote  their  whole  time  to  the  service  of  the  institu- 
tion ;  the  warden  and  physician  visit  every  inmate  once  every  two 
weeks,  (many  daily  or  twice  daily,  as  circumstances  may  require,) 
and  the  apothecary,  (an  intelligent  student  of  medicine,)  as  often 


126 


as  his  professional  services  may  be  required,  or  at  any  other  time 
his  leisure  or  inclination  may  dictate."     Seventeenth  Report^  p.  67. 

Having  seen  what  is  in  fact  done  in  PMadelpliia,  it 
may  be  worth  while  to  consider  what  is  practicable, 
and  on  bringing  this  question  to  the  infallible  test  of 
arithmetic,  it  will  be  found  that  more  than  is  done  there 
could  not  well  be  accomplished.  It  appears,  from  the 
above  table  marked  (B.)  that  the  number  of  prisoners 
has  been  on  an  average  for  the  last  ten  years,  364 ; 
let  360  be  taken  as  more  convenient  for  this  mode 
of  calculation.  It  is  stated  that  the  moral  instructor 
employs  from  seven  to  eight  hours  a  day,  say  eight. 
In  this  time  there  are  480  minutes,  which  is  one 
minute  and  one-third  for  each  prisoner.  It  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  he  sees  them  aU  every  day.  He 
states  himself,  that  he  makes  each  day  from  sixteen 
to  twenty  visits.  Suppose  twenty,  and  allowing  no 
time  for  passing  from  one  cell  to  another,  each  visit  is 
of  twenty-four  minutes,  and  each  prisoner  sees  him 
once  in  eighteen  days. 

If  the  visits  are  more  frequent,  they  must  be  shorter ; 
or  if  longer,  more  rare  ;  for  they  can  amount  in  all  to  no 
more  than  a  minute  and  one-third  per  day.  The  same 
estimate  applies  to  the  schoolmaster.  The  warden,  con- 
sidering his  other  important  avocations,  cannot  probably 
devote  more  than  two  hours  every  day  to  visits,  or  one- 
fourth  part  of  the  time  employed  by  the  teacher ;  which 
wUl  afford  to  each  prisoner  an  amount  of  visiting,  equal 
to  one-third  of  a  minute  each  day,  and  as  he  sees  every 
inmate  once  a  fortnight,  each  visit   may  be  of  four 


127 


miaiites  and  two-tliircls.  Allow  as  much  for  the  phy- 
sician, and  as  much  more  for  the  apothecary,  and  we 
have  altogether  from  these  officers  within  the  walls, 
three  minutes  and  two-thirds  per  day. 

The  inspector's  visits  are  made  tmce  a  week,  but 
cannot  be  supposed  to  occupy  more  than  six  hours ; 
which  will  amount  to  a  minute  twice  a  week,  equiva- 
lent to  one-third  of  a  minute  a  day.  As  they  see  all 
in  confinement  once  a  month,  each  of  the  monthly 
visits  would  be  of  ten  minutes.  A  committee  of  the 
Pliiladelpliia  Society  visits  the  prison  not  oftener 
than  once  a  week,  and  it  does  not  clearly  appear 
whether  so  often.  If  they  employ  as  much  time  as 
the  inspector,  or  six  hours  in  each  visit,  since  they 
go  half  as  often,  it  is  equal  to  one-sixth  of  a  minute 
per  day.  Or  supposing  that  there  are  always  nine  of 
them  present,  and  that  they  visit  separately,  we  should 
have  a  minute  and  a  half  each  day.  If  we  allow  that 
the  governor,  legislature,  judges,  juries,  sheriffs  and 
benevolent  persons  aU  taken  together,  occupy  as  much 
time  in  visits  as  the  warden,  or  two  hours  every  day, 
a  large  allowance,  it  will  make  one-third  of  a  minute 
more,  giving  two  minutes  and  one-sixth  for  all  persons 
without  the  walls. 

In  allowing  so  much  as  six  hours  to  the  visits  of 
the  inspectors,  and  of  the  committee,  and  in  many 
other  respects  the  time  given  above  is  obviously  over- 
rated very  much,  and  in  almost  aU  respects  not  a  little ; 
and  yet  altogether  it  does  not  amount  to  six  minutes 
a  day ;   though  it  includes  everything  but  the  visits 


128 


of  the  overseers  or  turnkeys  to  open  and  shut  the  doors 
and  cany  to  the  contacts  their  meals,  and  the  materials 
for  their  work.  These  are  merely  momentary,  and  can- 
not be  supposed  by  any  one  to  occupy  in  the  whole  more 
than  five  minutes  a  day.  And  as  some  indi-sdduals, 
from  illness  or  other  causes,  must  require  more  than  the 
average  time  from  the  officers,  within  the  walls,  others 
must  receive  less  than  the  average;  and  hence  we  see 
abundant  confirmation  of  ihe  warden's  statement,  that 
the  time  spent  with  a  great  majority  was  not  so 
much  as  fifteen  minutes  in  the  period  of  twenty-four 
hours. 

The  tables  abeady  given,  show  the  result  of  the 
system,  as  now  administered  in  Philadelphia,  allowing 
less  than  fifteen  minutes  a  day  of  human  intercourse 
to  each  convict.  How  much  it  would  be  requisite  to 
provide  in  order,  not  merely  to  prevent  those  terrible 
results,  but  to  maintain  in.  full  health  and  vigor  the 
nervous  system  and  all  the  faculties  of  body  and  of 
mind,  is  a  question  which,  in  the  absence  of  sufficient 
e^-idence,  must  be  left  mainly  to  conjecture.  No  one 
probably  would  think  of  less  than  two  hours  a  day. 
If  we  suppose  this  duty  of  \dsiting  to  be  assigned  to 
chaplains,  as  it  usually  is,  and  each  to  be  employed 
eight  hours  daily,  which  is  as  much  as  can  be  required, 
one  chaplain  for  every  four  contacts  would  be  neces- 
sary to  accomplish  the  object.  The  work  would  pro- 
bably be  divided,  and  one  chaplain  give  half  an  hour 
a  day  to  each  of  sixteen  convicts.  But  then  three 
others  must  give  half  an  hour  apiece  to  each  of  the 


129 


same  sixteen  in  order  to  furnish  them  with  the  time 
specified ;  and  however  this  duty  be  distributed  among 
them,  their  number  must  amount  to  at  least  one-fourth 
part  of  the  prisoners  ;  or  to  ninety-one  in  Philadelphia, 
and  seventy-four  in  Charlestown.  Even  to  provide 
them  with  society  for  one  single  hour  in  the  twenty- 
four,  would  require  half  these  numbers.  And  who 
would  dream  of  proposing  to  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts, to  employ  and  pay  seventy-four  or  even  thirty- 
seven  chaplains  for  the  State  prison,  or  ask  that  of 
Pennsylvania  for  the  still  larger  number  ? 

It  has  been  said,  however,  that  virtuous  and  benevolent 
individuals  might  be  found  to  perform  this  task  without 
compensation.  What  —  seventy-four  persons,  or  half 
that  number  in  Massachusetts,  who  would  thus  de- 
vote not  a  part  of  the  day,  but  the  whole  day  and 
every  day,  year  after  year,  to  visiting  the  inmates  of 
the  prison ;  or  twice  that  number  who  would  give  half 
the  day,  or  four  times  that  number  who  would  give 
two  hours  a  day  to  this  object,  continuously  and 
regularly !  Let  those  believe  it  who  can.  It  is  a  de- 
lusion. Besides  it  is  requisite  not  only  to  find  a  suffi- 
cient number;  but  to  find  them  fit  for  the  purpose. 
There  are  many  worthy  and  benevolent  persons,  who 
would  be  quite  as  likely  as  any  body  to  undertake 
this  task,  who,  if  they  talked  to  the  prisoners  as  they 
talk  about  them,  would  do  more  harm  than  good.  The 
report  of  the  physician  of  the  Philadelphia  prison  for 
1846,  contains  some  remarks  pertinent  to  this  subject, 
which  may  be  cited. 


130 


"  Tlioufrh  a  sincere  believer  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  advan- 
tages which  the  prisoner  will  derive  from  judicious  conversation 
with  official  visitors,  I  would  nevertheless  suggest  that  the  desire 
for  his  improvement,  and  the  tact  and  judgment  necessary  to  direct 
him  in  the  right  path,  may  not  always  be  combined  in  the  same 
individual  ;  hence  motives  most  benevolent  and  praiseworthy  in 
themselves  may  either  prove  barren  of  good,  or  be  productive  of 
mischievous  results."     Eighteenth  Report,  p.  64. 

"  As  many  of  the  sentences  appear  very  unequal,  even  those  well 
acquainted  with  their  history,  and  the  prisoners  generally  being 
entirely  ignorant  of,  or  incapable  of  reasoning  on  the  respective 
merits  of  their  own  cases  and  those  of  others,  with  whose  trials  and 
periods  of  imprisonment  they  happen  to  be  familiar,  they  are  but  too 
apt  to  consider  theirs  to  have  been  decided  more  by  the  vindictive 
feelings  of  witnesses  or  judges  than  by  any  settled  principle  of  justice. 
As  such  feelings  would  not  only  pervert  the  functions  of  both  mind 
and  body,  but  seriously  interfere  with  moral  reformation,  the  most 
earnest  efforts  should  be  made  for  their  removal.  Indeed  prisoners, 
either  from  an  honest  conviction  or  the  love  of  deceiving,  are  but 
too  apt  to  endeavor  to  impress  others  with  the  belief,  either  of  their 
entire  innocence,  or  that  their  sentences  are  disproportioned  to 
their  crime,  and  visitors,  who  are  not  on  their  guard,  may  give 
credence  to  their  statements,  and  condole  with  them  accordingly. 
Now  this  should  never  be ;  as  no  good,  but  positive  injury,  will 
arise  from  such  credulity,  by  either  encouraging  the  prisoner,  if 
insincere  in  his  deceit,  or  if  sincere,  in  his  belief;  still  further 
leading  him  to  suppose  himself  to  be  the  victim  of  a  harsh  law,  and 
all  those  who  administer  it  to  be  his  enemies."  Eighteenth  Report^ 
p.  G6. 

One  disadvantage  of  social,  as  compared  with  soli- 
tary labor,  much  insisted  on,  is  this ;  that  the  convicts 
employed  in  the  latter  will  he  more  able  to  recognize 
each  other  after  theh  discharge,  and  to  tempt  each 
other  to  new  crimes.     Tliis  is  true,   especially   with 


131 


regard  to  those  employed  in  the  same  workshop  ;  and 
it  is  a  disadvantage.  But  it  has  been  extravagantly 
overrated  by  those  who  have  placed  too  much  confidence 
in  the  statements  of  the  culprits  themselves.  When  two 
or  more  persons,  formerly  convicted,  are  again  imprisoned, 
having  united  in  the  commission  of  a  new  crime,  if  you 
believe  the  story  of  each,  they  have  all  been  tempted, 
and  no  one  the  tempter.  We  want  some  further  and 
better  evidence  to  show  the  actual  extent  of  this  evil 
in  practice.  In  the  meantime  it  should  be  considered 
that  many  of  the  convicts  knew  each  other  before  their 
imprisonment,  many  will  never  meet  afterwards,  some 
are  corrupt  and  need  no  temptation,  some  are  reformed 
and  will  not  be  tempters. 

As  to  the  idea,  that  a  man  may  be  driven  to  commit  a 
crime,  by  the  threat  of  denouncing  him  to  his  employer 
as  a  convict,  however,  that  may  have  once  been  here,  or 
may  now  be  elsewhere,  it  is  now  so  here  no  longer.  The 
fact  is  generally  known  to  the  employer,  or  if  not,  no 
discharged  convict,  under  our  present  arrangements,  finds 
any  difficulty  in  getting  a  good  place,  or  in  keeping  it  if  he 
is  diligent  and  sober.  Besides  the  man  who  should  make 
such  a  threat,  if  it  should  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
agent  of  the  State  or  of  the  Society  for  Discharged  Con- 
victs, would  find  his  footsteps  tracked  by  the  police,  and 
on  his  first  offence  would  be  sure  of  detection.  This  con- 
sideration, therefore,  cannot  be  considered  as  at  all  coun- 
tervailing those  before  mentioned  in  favor  of  social  labor. 

The  example  of  Europe  has  been  most  emphati- 
cally cited  on  this   subject,  again  and   again.     It  is 


132 


said,  that  the  opinion  of  all  the  governments  and  of 
ahnost  all  the  men  there,  especially  the  most  enlight- 
ened, is  in  favor  of  solitary  labor ;  and  that  we  should 
bow  to  their  authority.     In  matters  of  science  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  do  so,  and  very  naturally.     Their 
ancient,   great,  and  wealthy  institutions,   abundantly 
provided  with  the  means  of  pursuing  every  investiga- 
tion ;  the  concentration  in  the  metropolis  of  each  na- 
tion of  a  large  portion  of  its  eminent  men,  encouraging, 
stimulating,  instructing  and  rivalling  each  other ;  the 
rapidity  and  facility  of  intercourse  between  nation  and 
nation ;  the  facts  that  the  pursuits  of  science  there, 
like   all   others,  are    crowded,   so  that  even   for  this 
boundless  harvest  the   laborers  are  not  few;   that  in 
this,  as  in  other  departments,  there  is  a  great  subdi- 
vision of  labor,  and  that  multitudes  can  obtain  a  live- 
lihood and  distinction  by  the  cultivation  of  science; 
all   these  give  them  advantages   over   us,  which  are 
only  counterbalanced  in  a  few  rare  cases,  by  our  geo- 
graphical position,  or  some  other  peculiar  circumstance. 
While,  however,  we  listen  with  grateful  and  sincere 
respect  to  their  teachings,  we  should  not  be  blind  fol- 
lowers, but  enlightened  pupils,  exerting  our  intellect 
as  well  as  our   memory,  capable  of  doing  credit  to 
our  masters,  appreciating  their  merit,  imitating  their 
example,   and  combining   their   experience  with   our 
own.     In  this  one  science  of  prison  discipline,  our  ex- 
periments have  been  more  extensive  and  varied  than 
theirs,  and  this  they  seem  themselves  to  have  admitted 
by  repeatedly  sending  eminent  men  as  commissioners 


133 


to  America  to  inquire  into  the  results  of  those  experi- 
ments ;  and  theii*  reports,  embodying  the  information 
they  received,  with  the  result  of  theii'  own  observa- 
tions, are  highly  valuable  contributions  to  our  know- 
ledge on  this  subject.  But  it  should  be  remembered,  that 
most,  if  not  all  these  commissions,  came  to  this  country 
between  ten  and  fifteen  years  ago,  when  the  systems 
here  spoken  of  were  comparatively  recent,  and  when 
even  those  who  administered  them,  were  hardly  yet 
familiar  with  their  operation.  Increasing  knowledge 
having  rendered  us  continually  more '  and  more  compe- 
tent to  direct  our  inquiries  properly  and  to  draw  just 
conclusions  from  them,  our  experience  of  the  operation 
of  these  systems  for  the  last  ten  years  is  not  only  longer, 
but  more  valuable  in  proportion  to  its  length,  than  all 
which  preceded  it. 

Inhabitants  of  Europe  indeed  may  have  received  the 
annual  reports  from  our  prisons.  But  there  are  many 
things  necessary  to  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
practical  operation  of  a  system,  which  are  not  and  cannot 
well  be  inserted  in  these.  And  of  this  they  are  aware, 
or  why  send  any  commission  here  at  all  ?  These  reports 
might  have  been  obtained  without  that  ceremony.  It 
is  true,  therefore,  on  this  subject,  more  than  on  most 
others,  that  their  opinions  are  not  to  be  implicitly 
adopted  by  us,  but  to  be  fairly  scrutinized,  and  their 
experience  compared  with  ours,  especially  when  the 
only  practical  question  for  us  is,  what  system  is  best 
adapted  to  our  own  wants  and  condition.  The  exam- 
ple and  opinions  of  Europe,  however,  have  been  so 


134 


frequently,  earnestly,  and  indeed  imperatively  urged 
upon  us,  that  it  may  be  proper  to  make  some  more 
particular  remarks  upon  the  subject. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  the  opinion  which  pre- 
vailed among  the  eminent  men  assembled  at  Frankfort 
in  September,  1846,  to  discuss  the  subject  of  prison 
discipline,  was  in  favor  of  solitary  labor,  or  the  Penn- 
sylvania system,  with  modifications ;  and  this  opinion 
appears  to  be  now  generally  entertained  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  European  continent.  But  in  most  of  them  it 
is  purely  speculative ;  few,  if  any,  ha^dng  had  such  expe- 
rience of  the  actual  operation  of  the  two  systems,  as  to 
waiTant  any  judgment  whatever  on  a  question  so  emi- 
nently practical.  They  refer  frequently  to  the  expe- 
rience of  America,  often  exhibiting,  however,  a  want  of 
acquaintance  with  it,  especially  in  recent  times,  which 
is  hardly  surpassed  by  our  ignorance  of  theirs. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  in  many  of  those 
countries  the  present  system,  or  rather  practice,  for  it 
does  not  deserve  to  be  called  a  system,  is  the  same  in 
substance  which  was  prevalent  when  John  Howard 
first  entered  those  dens  of  pollution,  where  convicts 
herded  together  by  day  and  by  night,  without  disci- 
pline, without  occupation,  without  instniction,  and, 
but  for  the  walls  that  surrounded  them,  without  re- 
straint, indulging  in  promiscuous  and  unbounded 
license.  No  wonder,  that  looking  as  they  do  to  this 
country  for  information,  they  should  prefer,  of  the  only 
two  systems  now  existing  here,  the  one  which  seems 
most  remote  from  their  own ;   upon  which  last,  now 


135 


that  their  attention  is  called  to  it,  they  justly  look 
with  unmingled  abhorrence.  This  arises  from  a  natural, 
benevolent  and  honorable  impulse,  but  one  which,  want- 
ing experience  to  guide  it,  leads  them  to  excess. 

It  is  possible  also,  that  there  may  be  circumstances 
in  their  condition,  or  peculiarities  of  their  institutions, 
which  may  account  for  tliis  preference,  and  without 
a  knowledge  of  which  we  cannot  tell  how  far  we  ought 
to  be  influenced  by  their  opinions.  This  may  be  illus- 
trated by  an  example. 

Count  Skarbek,  of  Poland,  stated,  at  the  convention 
of  Frankfort,  that  the  prison  which  had  existed  since 
1835,  at  Warsaw,  and  three  others,  designed  as  houses 
for  detention  before  trial,  which  had  been  ordered  to 
be  built  in  Poland,  were  calculated  for  the  separate 
system. 

It  should,  however,  be  known  to  the  reader,  that 
in  most  parts  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  persons  ac- 
cused are  not  released,  on  giving  bail,  as  they  may  be  in 
all  but  capital  cases  among  us,  but  are  put  into  houses  of 
detention  or  jails,  and  instead  of  being  admonished,  as 
here,  to  say  nothing,  which  can  criminate  themselves,  are 
taken  before  the  magistrate  as  often  as  he  pleases  in  or- 
der to  undergo  private  and  searching  cross-examination. 
Long  before  our  systematic  improvements  in  prison  dis- 
cipline were  thought  of,  it  was  not  uncommon  to  order 
the  accused  to  be  kept  in  entu^e  solitude,  until  his  exam- 
ination should  be  finished.  No  one  can  wonder,  that 
the  contest  between  an  astute  and  thoroughly-trained 
magistrate  and  a  prisoner,  without  knowledge  or  ex- 


136 


perience,  and  ignorant  of  the  precise  bearing  of  most 
of  tlie  questions  put  to  Mm,  and  of  his  answers,  should 
usually  end  in  self-contradiction  enough  on  the  part 
the  latter  to  ensure  his  conviction ;  especially  when  it 
is  considered,  that  the  standing  of  the  magistrate  with 
his  colleagues  and  with  the  public  is  naturally  not  a 
little  affected  by  his  reputation  for  success  in  such 
examinations.  It  is  true,  that  these  examinations, 
which  are  reduced  to  writing,  are  not^  strictly  spealdng, 
evidence,  but  only  considered  as  adminicida  of  testi- 
mony, and  in  many  countries  no  prisoner  can  be  con- 
victed on  these  alone.  Two  witnesses  must  be  pro- 
duced against  him.  But  it  very  often  happens,  that 
these  witnesses  say  nothing  to  touch  a  hair  of  his 
head,  so  that  for  anything  they  know  of  the  matter, 
he  might  go  scathless  as  the  judge  himself,  if  it  were 
not  for  the  reading  of  these  unfortunate  adminiciila, 
whereupon  conviction  is  sure  to  follow.  When  this 
process  of  examination  has  been  continued  as  long  as 
the  magistrate  thinks  fit,  it  is  formally  closed,  and  the 
accused  is  sent  back  to  the  jail,  there  to  be  detained 
for  trial. 

Count  Skarbek,  states,  that  it  is  the  design  of  his 
government  to  extend  the  system  of  separate  confine- 
ment by  day  as  well  as  by  night  to  cdl  prisons.  Yet 
that  up  to  that  time,  they  had  confined  this  system  to 
houses  of  detention  for  persons  accused.  As  to  prisons 
for  convicts,  he  expressly  states,  that  it  had  only  been 
attempted  to  improve  as  far  as  possible  the  discipline 
of  those,  in  which  the  prisoners  lived  in  common ;  ex- 


137 


cepting  in  a  single  instance,  in  wliich  a  great  cloth 
manufactory  at  Sieraclz,  had  been  converted  into  a 
prison,  on  the  Auburn  system  for  166  prisoners,  where 
they  were  entirely  separated  by  night,  but  labored 
together  during  the  day.  Prisons  in  which  each  in- 
dividual has  a  separate  cell,  whether  administered  un- 
der the  Auburn  or  Pennsylvania  system,  he  calls 
cellular  prisons,  and  contrasts  them  with  those  where 
prisoners  live  in  common. 

The  Count  states,  that  only  two  cases  of  insanity 
had  occurred  in  the  house  of  detention  at  Warsaw, 
during  the  ten  years  since  its  establishment,  and  men- 
tions facts,  which  show  that  these  cannot  be  ascribed 
to  its  system  of  discipline  ;  but  as  we  are  not  informed 
what  length  of  time  is  usually  occupied  by  the  ex- 
amination, during  which  alone  the  prisoner  is  separately 
confined,  it  is  impossible  to  form  any  judgment  of  the 
weight  or  bearing  of  this  statement. 

The  French  report  of  the  proceedings  at  Frankfort 
contains  Count  Skarbek's  speech,  in  which  are  the 
following  passages.  They  are  very  literally  translated, 
even  the  punctuation  being  preserved. 

"  The  house  of  detention  at  Warsaw  contains  166  cells  and 
20  halls  of  from  12  to  14  beds  for  those  prisoners  whose  examination 
is  closed  ;  and  the  three  other  houses  of  detention  in  the  Provinces 
only  contain  cells  proportioned  in  number  to  the  wants  of  their 
localities,  and  have  only  two  common  halls  designed  for  smug- 
glers and  those  condemned  to  less  than  three  months'  imprison- 
ment, who  are  employed  in  the  internal  service  of  the  house." 

"  This  brief  statement  of  what  has  been  done  hitherto  for  Peni- 
tentiary reform  in  the   Kingdom   of  Poland,  cannot  yet  promise 


138 

great  results  with  respect  to  the  influence  of  the  system  upon  the 
morals  of  the  people,  for  such  results  can  only  be  obtained  when 
the  system  shall  have  been  developed  in  all  its  parts  and  fully 
put  in  operation  throughout  the  whole  country.  Yet  what  I  can 
affirm,  is  this  :  1.  That  the  state  of  health,  in  the  cellular  pris- 
ons, is  far  more  satisfactory  than  in  the  prisons  in  common.  The 
past  year,  in  which  Typhus  fever  decimated  the  prisoners  in 
these  last  prisons,  shows  that  the  cellular  system  secures  the  in- 
mates against  contagious  diseases  ;  for  in  the  establishments  of  this 
kind,  even  in  that  which  is  constituted  according  to  the  Auburn  sys- 
tem, that  dreadful  disease  has  scarcely  seized  a  victim  ;  and  while 
the  mortality  in  them  remained,  as  in  ordinary  years,  at  3  per 
cent.,  it  exceeded  10  per  cent,  in  the  prisons  in  common.* 


*  How  greatly  readers  are  liable  to  be  misled  by  an  abstract  not  carefully 
made,  may  be  learned  by  comparing  with  the  above  an  article,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  of  July  27,  1847.  It  is  headed 
thus : 

"present    state    of    prison    discipline    in    EUROPE. 

"  The  communications,  made  to  the  Penitentiary  Congress  at  Frankfort, 
in  September  last,  from  the  different  countries  of  Europe,  furnish  an  au- 
thentic account  of  the  present  state  of  Prison  Discipline  there,  and  par- 
ticularly of  the  extent  to  which  the  Pennsylvania  or  Separate  System  has 
been  adopted.  It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  present  some  facts  which 
have  been  gleaned  from  these  communications." 

"  Separate  System  Prisons  in  Europe.''^ 
Its  account  of  the  prisons  of  Poland  is  in  the  following  words  : 
"  In  Poland,  the  Separate  System  has  been  for  a  long  time  in  success- 
ful operation.  A  Prison  on  this  system  was  built  at  Warsaw  in  1835, 
which  contains  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  cells.  In  1843  an  appropriation 
was  made  to  build  three  other  prisons  on  the  same  system.  Count  Skar- 
bek,  a  Councellor  of  State  in  Warsaw,  and  much  devoted  to  the  cause 
of  Prison  Discipline,  stated  at  the  Penitentiary  Congress  as  follows  :  (1) 
'  The  health  of  the  Separate  Prisons  in  Poland  was  more  satisfactory 
than  that  of  the  Congregate '  ;  and,  (2)  '  During  the  ten  years  since  the 
occupation  of  the  Prison  at  Warsaw,  there  have  have  been  only  two  cases 
of  mental  alienation,  one  of  which  declared  itself  the  morning  after  the 


139 


In  this  State  any  person  accused  and  not  able  to 
procure  the  bail  required  for  his  release,  is  committed 
to  jail  for  the  purpose  of  securing  his  appearance  at 
his  trial,  and  for  this  purpose  alone  ;  and  any  restraint 
whatsoever  imposed  on  him,  which  is  not  necessary  for 
this  purpose,  or  for  preserving  good  order  in  the  prison, 
would  be  deemed  a  vdolation  of  his  rights ;  nor  can  he 
be  subjected  hy  compulsion  to  labor  or  to  idleness,  to 
solitude  or  to  society,  any  further  than  is  necessary  for 
the  accomplishment  of  these  objects.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  witnesses  in  criminal  cases,  who,  if  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  they  will  not  appear  to  give  evi- 
dence on  the  trial  of  the  accused,  may  be  confined, 
unless  they  can  give  security  for  their  appearance.  It 
is  for  this  purpose  alone  that  they  are  confined,  and 
not  as  asserted  by  a  recent  French  writer,  with  the  fan- 
tastic design  of  securing  the  integrity  of  their  testimo- 
ny, for  which  it  would  indeed  be  a  singular  expedient.* 

But  little  as  is   generally   known  here  about   the 

arrest,  and  the  other  was  caused  by  too  hasty  treatment  of  the  pUque 
{Plica  Polonica)  ;  but  the  latter  patient  has  been  completely  cured." 

The  last  sentence  is  an  exact  translation  of  the  Count's  words  as  con- 
tained in  the  French  Report.  But  it  will  be  seen  that  nothing  is  said  of 
the  20  halls  containing  from  12  to  14  beds  each,  in  all  from  240  to  288, 
which  are  mentioned  in  the  first  passage  above  cited,  in  immediate  con- 
nection with  the  166  cells,  without  a  comma  between  them;  and  that  the 
second  passage  is  transmuted  into  a  singular  phrase,  which  is  marked  as 
a  quotation. 

•  "  On  emprisonne  pr6ventivement  les  t6moins  en  Am^rique,  pour  s'as- 
surer  de  la  fid6]it6  de  leurs  depositions.  On  use  de  singuliers  expedients 
contre  la  iiberte  dans  ces  pays  de  liberte."  Moreau-Christophe,  sur  la 
projet  de  lot.     p.  86. 


140 


discipline  of  i^risons  in  most  parts  of  the  continent 
of  Europe,  much  information  at  least  with  regard  to 
opinion  in  France,  may  be  derived  from  the  pro- 
ceedings in  the  chamber  of  deputies.  The  sentiments 
of  a  large  number  of  the  members  on  this  subject 
are  perhaps  best  exhibited  in  a  report,  made  in  1840, 
by  ^Ir.  De  Tocqueville,  on  behalf  of  a  commission  of 
the  chamber,  and  in  another  report,  made  by  the 
same  distinguished  statesman,  on  behalf  of  a  similar 
commission  in  1843.  These  reports,  however,  have  not 
yet  been  definitively  acted  upon  by  the  chamber  of 
deputies. 

They  set  forth  at  length  the  reasons  of  the  com- 
missions for  abandoning  the  system  of  prison  dis- 
ciphne  then  existing  there,  which  involves  the  con- 
finement of  convicts  in  common,  without  effectual 
restraint  by  day  or  by  night.  To  these  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  refer,  as  no  doubt  exists  here  on  that  subject, 
and  any  discussion  of  it  has  long  been  entirely  ob- 
solete ;  so  that  no  one  would  now  think  of  instituting 
any  comparison  at  all  between  our  two  systems  or 
either  of  them  and  prisons  in  common.  The  reports 
set  forth,  also,  the  reasons  of  the  commissions  for  pre- 
ferring solitary  to  social  labor.  These  last  reasons,  or 
such  of  the  most  prominent  among  them  as  have  not 
already  been  noticed,  may  require  a  few  remarks. 

The  commissions  admit  in  the  outset  that  the  sys- 
tem of  solitude  by  night,  with  labor  in  common  but 
in  silence  during  the  day,  precludes  the  grosser  im- 
moralities and  prevents  in  part  the  moral  contamina- 


141 


tion  of  the  existing  prisons ;  and  that  it  makes  labor 
more  productive  and  is  less  expensive  to  the  public 
than  the  system  of  labor  in  solitude. 

The  severity  and  frequency  of  punishments  requisite 
in  the  opinion  of  the  commissions  for  administering  the 
system  of  social  labor,  are  much  dwelt  on,  and  it  is 
asserted  that  "  in  all  the  American  prisons  on  this  sys- 
tem a  violation  of  the  rule  of  silence  is  punished  by 
a  certain  number  of  lashes  j  and  that  the  only  American 
prison,  where  the  lash  was  not  used  in  1831,  has  since 
adopted  it."  To  all  Americans  the  incorrectness  of 
these  statements  is  well  known. 

The  commissions  allege  that  silence  cannot  be  per- 
fectly maintained ;  and  that  though  it  may  be  pre- 
served to  such  a  degree,  as  to  prevent  the  grosser  cor- 
ruptions, yet  the  prisoners  will  still  be  able  to  make 
known  to  each  other  their  former  history  and  their 
future  plans  ;  and  that  at  any  rate,  the  rule  of  silence 
wiU  be  so  often  violated,  as  to  lose  that  power  of 
repressing  crime,  which  seems  to  them  to  be  the  chief 
merit  of  the  system.  Undoubtedly,  a  few  stolen 
words  are  sometimes  exchanged  in  the  prison,  but  it 
is  not  believed  here,  that  any  sustained  conversation, 
or  any  detailed  communication  of  former  adventures 
or  of  conspiracies  for  the  future,  can  take  place  without 
detection.  Nor  is  it,  perhaps,  possible  to  prevent  all 
communication  whatever  between  prisoners  in  any 
other  manner,  than  by  placing  each  of  them  in  a 
solitary  building  under  a  separate  roof  The  sole  ob- 
ject of  prohibiting  conversation  in  our  prison  is  to 

19 


142 


prevent  corrupting  and  disorderly  intercourse,  and  tliis 
it  is  supposed  can  be  accomplished,  and  is  accom- 
plished here  without  frequent  or  cruel  punishments. 
As  to  the  influence  of  the  rule  of  strict  silence  in 
repressing  crimes,  it  may  certainly  be  doubted  whether 
any  man  among  us  finds  his  horror  of  being  sent  to 
the  State  prison  much  increased  by  the  reflection  that, 
if  he  get  there,  he  will  not  be  allowed  free  conversa- 
tion with  the  convicts. 

One  striking  consideration,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
French  commissions,  is  the  fact,  that  most  of  the  agents 
who  have  been  sent  from  Europe  to  America,  to 
observe  on  the  spot  the  practical  operation  of  our 
different  systems  of  prison  discipline,  though  some  of 
them  before  their  visits  favored  the  system  of  social 
labor,  all  returned  with  a  different  opinion,  being  con- 
vinced of  the  powerful  effect  upon  the  minds  of  crim- 
inals of  the  separate  system,  though  they  saw  it  only 
in  its  most  harsh  and  austere  form. 

No  doubt,  the  effect  of  prolonged  separate  confine- 
ment upon  the  minds,  the  nerves,  and  the  health  of 
the  prisoners,  is  always  striking  and  sometimes  even 
dreadful;  and  this  effect  was  for  a  few  years  con- 
sidered by  many  Americans  as  well  as  by  foreigners, 
to  be  conclusive  evidence  of  repentance  and  reforma- 
tion. That  it  is  not  so  in  fact,  when  the  prisoner  is 
kept  in  solitude  without  labor,  but  only  a  proof  of 
debility  in  body  and  in  mind  is  now  admitted ;  and 
though  it  is  less  speedy,  less  universal  and  less  terrific 
when  he  is  allowed  to  labor,  yet  so  far  as  it  does  exist, 
it  must  be  ascribed  to  the  same  cause. 


143 


The  commissions  think  that  the  system  of  constant 
separation  must  be  more  easily  administered  than  that 
of  social  labor ;  and  that  this  last  must  necessarily  re- 
quire a  much  greater  degree  of  vigilance,  ability  and 
trustworthiness  in  all  the  inferior  officers  ;  such  a  degree 
indeed  as  can  hardly  be  expected  from  men  in  their  posi- 
tion. The  warden  of  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Penn- 
sylvania says,  in  his  sixth  annual  report, — 

"  The  Pennsylvania  system  is  one  of  privations  rather  than  pun- 
ishments ;  such  it  certainly  has  been  during  the  last  year,  for  very 
few  cases  have  occurred  requiring  severity  of  treatment ;  with  an 
increased  number  of  prisoners,  we  have  had  fewer  cases  of  re- 
fractory conduct  than  at  any  other  period.  This  improvement 
I  mainly  attribute  to  the  salutary  change  made  in  some  of  the 
under  officers  during  the  early  part  of  the  year.  In  all  institutions 
it  is  important  to  have  good  officers,  but  in  an  establishment  where 
the  prisoners  are  kept  separate  and  alone,  particularly  so ;  they 
have  few  opportunities  for  conversation,  and  when  these  do  occur 
they  are  embraced  with  avidity,  and  the  temper,  morals  and  dis- 
position of  those  who  have  almost  the  exclusive  communion  with 
them  must  have  great  influence  on  the  criminal.  The  improve- 
ment I  have  alluded  to,  has  therefore  satisfied  me  that  I  was  right 
in  the  changes  that  I  made."     Sixth  Report,  p.  7. 

It  is  known,  also,  that  instances  of  the  infliction  of 
unlawful  and  cruel  punishments  have  formerly  occurred 
in  that  prison.  These  have  not  been  mentioned,  and 
are  not  now  mentioned  as  belonging  to  the  system,  for 
they  were  mere  abuses,  and  were  corrected  as  soon  as 
they  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  legislature.  But 
this  liability  to  abuse  is  in  itself  an  objection ;  and 
since,  under  the  separate   system,  these  things  take 


144 


place  in  the  absence  of  all  witnesses,  the  prisoner 
is  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  officer,  unless  the  asser- 
tion of  the  former  is  taken  as  conclusive  proof,  in 
which  case  the  officer  is  in  the  power  of  the  convict, 
and  must  grant  him  all  the  indulgences  which  he  may 
choose  to  demand. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  commissions  that  under  the 
system  of  social  labor,  there  are  no  means  of  maintain- 
ing discipline  excepting  the  lash ;  for  hard  labor  can- 
not be  imposed,  since  the  prisoners  already  work  as 
hard  as  they  can ;  silence  is  no  punishment,  for  it  is 
the  uniform  rule  ;  and  solitary  confinement  can  rarely  be 
applied,  because  the  number  of  solitary  cells  is  limited ; 
and  besides,  it  takes  the  prisoner  from  his  work. 

With  great  respect  it  may  be  replied,  that  where 
each  prisoner  is  confined  in  a  solitary  cell  every  night, 
there  must  be  at  least  as  many  cells  as  prisoners ;  and 
that  to  take  them  from  their  work,  as  far  as  is  neces- 
sary for  preserving  the  discipline  and  good  order  of 
the  prison,  is  not  only  unobjectionable  but  in  the  end 
profitable.  The  whole  objection  rests  on  an  erroneous 
idea  of  the  frequency  and  duration  of  the  punishments 
necessary  to  be  inflicted  for  the  maintenance  of  good 
order  in  a  prison.  It  is  perfectly  obvious  that  every 
punishment,  which  can  be  applied  under  the  system  of 
solitary  labor,  may  be  as  well  applied  under  the  system 
of  social  labor,  together  with  the  additional  punishment 
of  solitary  confinement  by  day. 

The  commissions  think  that  men  work  with  more 
diligence,  and  that  a  trade  is  learned  sooner  in  soli- 


145 


tude  tliaii  under  the  constant  inspection  of  a  master 
and  in  the  presence  of  fellow-Avorkmen ;  and  assert 
that  this  is  proved  by  experiments  made  in  America, 
England,  and  France. 

This  allegation  has  been  often  made  in  general 
terms  by  the  advocates  of  solitary  labor.  But  when 
we  ask  the  grounds  of  their  opinion,  we  are  met  by 
the  assertion,  that  men  will  work  of  necessity  to  relieve 
the  weariness  of  solitude,  and  that  all  their  attention 
will  naturally  be  directed  to  their  work  ;  or  if  we  insist 
on  evidence,  are  told  perhaps  of  some  one,  who  made  a 
shoe  after  four  days'  teaching,  or  of  a  man  who  was  so 
constantly  at  his  loom,  that  he  would  not  quit  it  for 
company  nor  hardly  for  his  meals.  Such  particular 
instances,  however,  which  are  recorded  because  they 
are  uncommon,  prove  nothing  as  to  the  usual  course 
of  events  ;  and  although  a  man  will  resort  to  labor  as 
a  relief  from  solitude,  it  does  not  follow  of  necessity 
that  his  labor  will  be  steady  and  efficient ;  nor  is  it 
likely  to  be  so,  unless  supported  by  a  fixed  habit  of 
exertion  previously  acquired.  To  ascertain  what  its 
character  actually  is,  we  must  look  to  its  results.  The 
table  of  earnings  given  above,  is  one  piece  of  evidence 
on  this  point,  and  the  juvenile  department  at  Millbank 
will  furnish  another. 

We  are  informed  that  in  the  year  1839,  the  Inspec- 
tors-general of  prisons  in  France  met  in  council,  and 
after  long  discussions  came  to  the  conclusion,  by  a 
large  majority,  that  it  is  iwmhle  to  learn  and  practise  a 
useful  trade  in  solitary  confinement.     If  this  were  ad- 


146 


duccd  to  repel  the  allegation  that  it  is  impossible,  it 
would  be,  so  far  as  their  opinion  goes,  to  the  purpose. 
But  it  does  not  countenance  the  proposition  which  it  is 
brought  forward  to  support,  that  it  is  easier  to  do  this 
in  confinement  than  in  company.  No  one  ever  doubted 
its  possibility. 

The  suggestion  of  the  commissions,  that  the  plan  of 
solitary  labor  will  produce  so  great  a  reform  in  society, 
and  diminish  so  much  the  number  of  criminals,  and  the 
length  of  their  imprisonment,  as  ultimately  to  lessen 
the  expense  of  justice,  is  a  mere  conjecture  ;  and  the 
idea  that  the  French  people  suffer  less  than  other  na- 
tions from  solitary  confinement,  and  other  privations 
wliich  they  know  to  be  unavoidable,  even  if  correct, 
would  only  show  that  a  system  fitted  for  them,  might 
be  ill  adapted  to  others,  in  which  case  their  experience 
can  be  no  guide  for  us. 

Under  the  head  of  Opinion  of  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Medicine,  both  commissions-  cite  the  conclusion  of  a 
report  made  to  that  learned  body  on  the  5th  of  January, 
1839,  by  a  commission  of  its  own  members,  consisting 
of  five  eminent  physicians.  That  conclusion  is  to  the 
following  effect : 

"  If  the  commission  had  to  express  its  opinion  what  penitentiary 
system  should  be  preferred,  it  would  not  hesitate  to  decide  for  the 
system  of  Philadelphia,  as  the  most  favorable  to  reformation. 

The  commission  having  to  declare  itself  only  as  to  the  sanitary 
question  on  the  different  systems,  is  convinced,  that  the  system  of 
Pennsylvania,  that  is  to  say,  continuous  solitary  confinement  by 
day  and  by  night,  with  labor,  and  conversation  with  the  officers 
and  inspectors,  does  not  shorten  the  lives  of  the  prisoners,  nor  en- 
danger their  reason." 


147 


Any  one  who  has  seen  the  conclusion  thus  cited  by 
the  commissions,  but  not  the  document  containing  it, 
will  naturally  desire  to  know  whether  it  is  founded  on 
abstract  principles,  or  on  experience.  If  on  abstract 
principles,  high  as  the  authority  is  from  which  it  em- 
anates, it  can  have  little  value  in  a  science  so  purely 
inductive  as  this.  But  this  could  hardly  be  the  case 
in  Paris,  where  the  learned  men  of  the  present  day  are 
the  foremost  to  insist  on  an  invariable  adherence  to  the 
great  rule,  that  in  all  the  inductive  sciences  principles 
must  be  deduced  from  facts,  and  not  facts  from  princi- 
ples. 

This  conclusion  then  was  undoubtedly  founded  on 
experience.  But  on  whose  experience  ?  Surely  not 
on  their  own ;  for  the  first  place  in  France  where  the 
separate  system  was  introduced  was  the  prison  of  La 
Roquette  in  Paris,  an  establishment  for  boys,  and  at 
the  time  of  that  report  this  system  had  been  in  opera- 
tion there  not  more  than  six  months,  and  that  only 
partially.  It  was  in  all  probability  founded  mainly 
on  the  experience  of  America,  as  represented  to  them. 
Not  at  all  doubting  that  those  distinguished  men 
decided  correctly  on  the  evidence  before  them,  it  is 
necessary  to  consider  what  that  evidence  was,  in  order 
to  determine  how  much  weight  should  be  attached  to 
their  opinion  at  the  present  day.  At  that  time  the 
latest  report  which  they  could  have  received  from  the 
Philadelphia  prison  was  that  read  in  the  Legislature  of 
the  State  on  the  8th  of  February,  1838,  giving  an  ac- 
count of  the  transactions  of  the  year  1837,  the  very 


148 


first  in  which  the  number  of  cases  of  insanity  in  that 
prison  began  to  be  regularly  reported. 

Independently  of  this,  our  experience  in  this  country 
was  at  that  time  very  imperfect  The  system  had  not 
then  existed  here  quite  ten  years,  and  it  requires  some 
time  to  put  a  new  system  into  operation,  some  knowledge 
to  make  accurate  observations,  some  experience  to  con- 
duct a  good  experiment;  and  all  the  experience  of 
America  then  was  infinitely  less  accurate,  complete 
and  valuable  than  that  which  we  have  since  acquired. 

The  opinion  of  the  Commission  of  the  Chambers 
on  the  mental  effect  of  separate  confinement  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

"  Even  if  mental  diseases  were  a  little  more  frequent  in  the 
new  prisons  than  in  the  old,  the  commission  would  still  say, 
without  hesitation,  that  this  reason,  however  powerful,  is  not  suffi- 
cient for  abandoning  the  system  of  separate  imprisonment  with  all 
the  social  advantages  that  attend  it. 

"  The  old  prisons  caused  physical  suffering,  and  it  was  in  this 
way  maiuly  that  they  repressed  crime.  The  successive  improve- 
ments since  introduced  into  the  system,  now  permit  a  certain  de- 
gree of  comfort  to  be  enjoyed  under  it. 

"  If  imprisonment  spare  the  body,  it  is  just  and  desirable,  that  it 
should  leave  some  salutary  impressions  on  the  mind,  thus  attacking 
the  evil  at  its  source.  Now  it  is  impossible  that  a  system  specially 
designed  to  make  a  strong  impression  on  a  great  number  of  minds, 
should  not  drive  some  of  them  towards  madness.  If  this  evil  is,  as 
the  commission  believes,  very  rare,  however  deplorable,  it  is  still  to 
be  preferred  to  the  thousand  evils  engendered  by  the  existing  system." 

The  existing  system  in  France  last  mentioned,  is 
that  of  living  together  da}^  and  night  without  occupa- 
tion, and  almost  without  restraint,  and  anything  is  bet- 


149 


tei*  than  that.  But  the  sentiment  previously  expressed 
will  not  probably  be  adopted  here.  If  suffering  is  to 
be  inflicted  because  it  is  suffering  and  to  deter  others 
from  crime,  let  it  be  inflicted  upon  the  body  and  not 
upon  the  mind.  Shame,  mortification,  remorse,  the 
natural  consequences  of  guilt  are  the  inflictions  of 
Pro^ddence,  and  must  be  endured,  but  the  human  in- 
tellect is  too  delicate  an  instrument,  too  precious,  too 
little  understood,  to  be  made  the  subject  of  experi- 
mental torture  at  the  hands  of  man.  The  idea  that  a 
mode  of  discipline  which  debilitates  the  mind  of  the 
convict  can  promote  his  reformation  is  entirely  errone- 
ous. He  needs  all  its  elasticity  and  all  its  firmness  to 
enable  him  to  maintain  his  resolutions  of  amendment. 

Both  Commissions  of  the  Chamber  append  to  their 
respective  reports  a  note  which  contains  the  following 
statement. 

"  Before  1838  no  case  of  insanity  or  of  hallucination  appears  to 
have  shown  itself  in  the  Penitentiary  of  Philadelphia.  At  that 
time  several  are  observed.  One  or  two  prisoners  were  on  this  ac- 
count pardoned.  From  that  moment  the  cases  were  multiplied 
but  in  opposition  to  the  usual  course  of  mental  diseases  a  few  days 
were  generally  sufficient  to  cure  the  patient.  May  we  not  suppose 
that  some  of  these  cases  so  easily  cured  and  appearing  in  a  prison 
remarkable  for  the  good  health  of  its  inmates,  were  feigned,  either  in 
the  hope  of  some  temporary  indulgence  or  of  obtaining  a  pardon  ?  " 

Now  it  has  abeady  been  seen,  that  five  cases  of  in- 
sanity are  mentioned  in  the  Official  Report  for  1832.* 
In  the  Physician's  Report  for   1833    one   person  is 

*  Page  105,  above. 


150 


spoken  of  who,  though  in  good  health  on  his  admission, 
became  insane  in  prison,  not  however,  as  the  physician 
thinks,  in  consequence  of  the  mode  of  confinement. 
And  in  the  report  for  1834,  two  of  the  persons  dis- 
charged are  stated  to  have  been  insane  at  the  time. 
In  the  Warden's  Report  for  1835  he  remarks  that,  ob- 
servation shows  that  there  are  many  more  idiots  and 
insane  in  prisons  than  was  supposed ;  and  though  he 
does  not  confine  the  remark  to  his  own  prison,  it  is 
obvious  what  it  means. 

As  to  the  statement  that  a  few  days  were  always 
sufficient  for  a  cure  in  such  cases,  without  inquiring 
what  authority  there  might  have  been  for  it  at  that 
time,  we  may  learn  how  the  fact  stands  at  the  present 
day  from  the  statement  of  the  physician,  contained  in 
his  last  report,  that  for  1846,  which  has  already  been 
cited.* 

Such  are  the  opinions  which  now  prevail  extensively, 
and  perhaps  generally,  in  France.  The  experience  of 
America  does  not  afford  them  the  support,  which  they 
claim  from  it,  but  appears  to  have  been  greatly  mis- 
represented or  misunderstood.  As  to  the  experience 
of  France  itself,  the  first  prison  providing  for  constant 
confinement  established  there  was  that  of  La  Roquette, 
designed  for  children  alone,  to  whom  this  system,  ac- 
cording to  the  universal  sentiment  in  England  and 
America,  is  altogether  inapplicable.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary, therefore,  to  speak  of  that  prison  here,  though  it 
there  assumes  the  merit  of  entire  success. 

*  See  page.  10. 


151 


The  other  prisons  on  the  same  system  in  that  cotin- 
try,  have  been  established  too  short  a  time  to  afford 
any  experience  to  be  at  all  compared  with  our  own.  It 
has,  indeed,  been  gravely  nrged,  that  the  experience  of 
nineteen  prisons  for  three  years  is  equivalent  to  that 
of  three  prisons  for  nineteen  years.  This  idea  is  alto- 
gether novel,  and  can  hardly  need  a  grave  refutation. 
If  it  were  just,  a  sufficient  number  of  school  boys  might 
rival  the  experience  of  a  Nestor.  It  has  been  already 
shown  that  aU  experiments  of  this  kind  have  for  a 
time  been  deemed  successful,  even  those  which  turned 
out  at  last  to  be  the  most  pernicious. 

Some  account  of  the  French  system,  though  not  suffi- 
cient to  make  us  acquainted  with  its  practical  opera- 
tion, and  enable  us  to  imitate  it,  may  be  found  in  a 
letter  from  Paris  to  the  mayor  of  Boston,  published 
by  the  city  government  last  winter.  It  is  stated, 
that  each  convict  there  is  visited  every  day  by  the 
director,  surgeon  and  other  officers  named,  in  all 
amounting  to  seven.  If  this  be  so,  and  if  each 
of  these  officers  find  time  to  appropriate  six  hours, 
or  three  hundred  and  sixty  minutes  every  day,  to 
these  visits,  each  visit  to  five  hundred  prisoners, 
for  such  is  the  number  proposed  for  each  of  those 
prisons,  could  not  be  longer  than  three  quarters  of  a 
minute,  and  the  whole  seven  visits  would  occupy  but 
about  five  minutes  in  a  day.  Probably,  however,  these 
official  visits  are  in  fact,  as  the  commissions  propose, 
obligatory  only  once  a  week,  in  which  case  every  pris- 
oner would  see    each  of  his   seven  visitors  for  about 


i 


152 


five  minutes  once  a  week.  TMs  as  before  would  of 
course  give  him  altogether  five  minutes  of  company 
every  day. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  designed  that  these  visits  should 
be  much  like  those  described  in  the  third  report  of 
the  inspectors  of  prisons,  for  the  home  district  in 
England.  They  state,  that  they  have  frequently  seen 
a  governor  visit  500  prisoners  in  separate  cells  in  the 
course  of  a  very  few  hours ;  and  they  describe  the 
manner  in  which  visits  are  made  by  the  governor  and 
by  the  surgeon.  "  An  officer  precedes  them  in  their 
rounds,  and  has  already  opened  two  or  three  cells  in 
advance,  and  the  governor  or  surgeon  passes  on  from 
one  cell  to  another  almost  as  soon  as  an  officer  passes 
down  a  line  of  troops,  stopping  whenever  a  case  re- 
quires further  inquiry  or  communication." 

Now  this  species  of  formal  review  is  highly  useful 
no  doubt,  and  ought  to  be  continued ;  but  it  does  not 
amount  to  much  social  intercourse,  nor  detract  much 
time  from  the  loneliness  of  twenty-four  hours  of  un- 
mitigated solitude. 

For  the  rest  of  his  visits,  the  prisoner  must  rely  on 
the  voluntary  benevolence  of  friends  and  strangers. 
From  the  same  letter  we  learn,  that  each  prisoner  ex- 
ercises, of  course  alone,  an  hour  every  day  in  one  of 
a  series  of  courts,  some  of  which  are  adorned  with 
flowers,  and  refreshed  with  fountains.  As  there  is  a 
considerable  part  of  the  year  in  our  climate  when  this 
exercise  could  not  be  taken  more  than  eight  hours  in 
a  day,  it  would  be  requisite  to  have  one  such  court 


or  garden  for  every  eight  convicts,  that  is,  more  than 
sixty  for  500  prisoners  and  nearly  forty  in  Charlestown. 

The  Commissions  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  con- 
demn the  unnecessary  rigor  shown  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  consider  the  relaxations  they  propose  as  essential  to 
the  success  of  their  system.  How  much  aid  they 
expect  from  benevolent  societies  and  individuals  does 
not  appear.  Nor  is  it  important  for  us  to  inquire  ;  for 
in  this  as  in  many  other  particulars,  that  which  may 
be  very  practicable  in  France,  may  be  out  of  the  ques- 
tion in  America. 

The  legal  and  social  institutions  and  habits  of  Eng- 
land resemble  our  own  much  more  than  those  of  the 
rest  of  Europe  do,  and  we  know  much  more  about 
them.  In  that  country  also,  there  have  been  far  more 
extensive  and  varied  observations  on  this  subject,  than 
in  any  of  the  continental  nations.  The  experience  of 
their  great  national  establishments  and  its  results, 
needs  only  to  be  briefly  stated,  in  order  to  show  how 
far  the  English  system  resembles  that  of  solitary  labor 
as  administered  here,  and  how  far,  such  as  it  is,  it  has 
bcOT  successful  there,  or  might  be  appropriate  in  Amer- 
ica. 

The  first  national  penitentiary  was  built  at  Millhank, 
near  London.  It  was  opened,  partially,  to  receive 
women  in  1816,  and  for  men  in  1817,  and  completed 
in  1822.  Its  inmates  consisted  of  those  convicts  who, 
having  been  sentenced  to  transportation,  had  their  pun- 
ishment transmuted  for  confinement  in  this  prison  by 
warrant  of  a  Secretary  of  State.     In  consequence  of  a 


154 


contagious  disease  which  broke  out  in  this  prison  in 
the  winter  of  1823,  ascribed  by  some  to  a  reduction  in 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  food,  which  had  been  made 
to  meet  the  popular  complaint  that  convicts  in  the 
prison  lived  better  than  honest  laborers  without,  the 
prisoners  were  all  removed  and  the  jail  remained 
closed  till  1824  ;  since  Avhich  time  it  has  been  con- 
stantly occupied.  The  prisoners  were  originally  di- 
vided into  two  classes,  in  each  of  which  it  was  intended 
that  they  should  pass  half  the  time  of  their  confine- 
ment. Those  in  the  first  class,  after  coming  out  to 
wash,  eight  at  a  time,  in  the  morning,  pursued  their 
several  occupations  in  their  cells,  till  it  was  the  turn 
of  their  ward  to  work  at  the  water-machine  or  at 
the  corn-mills.  The  prisoners  of  each  ward,  thirty- 
two  in  number,  worked  four  times  a  day  in  company 
at  these  machines  for  half  an  hour  each  time  in  sum- 
mer, walking  afterwards  in  their  ow^n  airing-yard  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  and  then  returning  to  their  cells. 
They  wall^ed  two  and  two,  and  were  allowed  to  con- 
verse with  theu'  companions,  provided  the  conversation 
were  not  carried  on  in  a  loud  voice. 

The  arrangements  made  for  the  schools,  and  calcu- 
lated particularly  for  the  first  class  of  prisoners,  were 
as  follows.  The  schools  were  held  on  two  evenings  in 
every  week,  the  number  of  pupils  in  each  school  be- 
ing sixteen,  and  the  school  lasting  about  an  hour  and 
a  half 

The  convicts  belonging  to  this  class  labored  sepa- 
rately in  their  cells.     To  what  good  end  it  is  difficult 


155 


to  imagine,  since  they  were  allowed  to  converse, 
unheard  by  the  officers,  every  day  during  their 
walks. 

Convicts  of  the  second  class  worked  several  together 
in  larger  cells  by  day,  but  were  kept  separate  at 
night ;  and  they  walked  more  in  their  court  yards,  and 
worked  less  at  the  machines  and  mills  than  those  of 
the  first  class.* 

In  the  year  1832,  this  second  class  was  aboKshed, 
and  thenceforth  every  prisoner  worked  alone  in  liis 
cell;  and  in  1837,  on  the  appointment  of  a  new 
governor,  conversation  in  the  yards  was  prohibited  and 
various  other  restrictive  measures  adopted,  all  de- 
signed to  carry  out  as  far  as  possible  the  principle,  as 
it  was  called,  of  non-intercourse. 

As  early  as  the  11th  of  May,  1839,  the  deaths  and 
cases  of  insanity  had  become  so  frequent  and  alarm- 
ing, that  a  distinguished  physician  was  called  in  to 
visit  the  prison  twice  a  week  for  six  months  ;  and  in 
February,  1840,  the  eminent  Dr.  William  Baly  was 
appointed  with  the  consent  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
to  visit  the  prison  twice  at  least  in  every  week  for 
the  space  of  twelve  months,  in  order,  "  that  the  con- 
dition and  health  of  the  prisoners  and  the  physical 
effects  of  the  discipline  should  be  narrowly  watched 
by  a  competent  medical  man,  in  conjunction  with  the 
resident  surgeon." 

Dr.  Baly,  accepted  the  appointment,  and  made  his 

*  Holford  on  Millbank,  p.  68,  &c. 


156 


report  in  May,  1841.  Considering  the  remarks  made 
on  this  report  by  the  superintending  committee,  and 
the  character  of  its  author,  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted 
that  the  British  government  has  not  seen  fit  to  pub- 
lish it. 

The  inspectors  of  the  home  district  express  their 
opinion,  that  this  impaked  state  of  health  must  be  at- 
tributed to  some  other  cause  than  the  increased  strict- 
ness of  the  separation  and  discipline,  which  had  then 
recently  taken  place.  But  the  remedies  prescribed  by 
Dr.  Baly,  and  the  success  of  those  remedies  leave  no 
doubt  on  this  subject.  The  official  reports  of  the 
superintending  committee  of  the  Millbank  penitentiary 
for  the  years  1841  and  1842,  will  make  this  ap- 
parent. 

[Extracts  ft'om  the  Millhank  Report  for  1841.] 
"  Great  alterations  have  been  made  in  the  discipline  of  the  in- 
stitution. In  consequence  of  a  distressing  increase  in  the  number 
of  insane  prisoners,  the  committee,  under  the  sanction  of  Dr. 
Baly's  report,  which  will  afterwards  be  noticed,  came  to  the  reso- 
lution, that  it  would  be  unsafe  to  continue  a  strict  system  of  sepa- 
ration for  the  long  periods,  to  which  the  ordinary  sentences  of 
prisoners  in  the  penitentiary  extend.  They  therefore,  proposed 
that  the  system  should  be  relaxed  with  regard  to  all  classes  of 
prisoners,  except  two,  viz.,  military  prisoners,  (whose  sentences 
m  general  are  extremely  short,)  and  persons  convicted  of  unnatural 
offences ;  and  that,  as  to  all  other  prisoners,  the  prohibition  of  in- 
tercourse should  be  limited  to  the  first  three  months  after  their 
admission,  and  that  upon  the  expiration  of  that  period,  they  should 
be  placed  under  a  system  of  modified  intercourse,  consisting  of 
permission  to  converse  during  the  hours  of  exercise,  with  two  or 
more  fellow  prisoners ;  the  privilege  to  be  suspended  for  miscon- 


157 


duct;  and  such  a  classification,  with  reference  to  age,  education, 
character,  and  conduct,  to  be  adopted,  as  would  render  the  in- 
dulgence as  little  injurious  as  possible,  in  a  moral  point  of  view. 
The  committee  also  proposed,  that  wherever  the  medical  officer 
should  have  reason  to  believe,  that  the  mind  or  body  of  any  pris- 
oner was  likely  to  be  injuriously  affected  by  the  discipline,  he 
should  have  the  power  of  suggesting  a  change  in  the  particular 
case. 

"  The  rules  for  effecting  the  foregoing  alterations,  having  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  were  brought  into 
operation  on  the  14th  of  July  last. 

"  A  sufficient  time  has  not  yet  elapsed,  to  enable  the  committee 
to  form  an  accurate  judgment  of  the  comparative  merits  of  the 
old  and  new  systems,  in  their  various  important  bearings.  They 
are,  however,  inclined  to  believe,  that  no  scheme  of  discipline  in 
which  intercourse  between  prisoners,  however  modified,  forms  an 
essential  part,  is  ever  likely  to  be  made  instrumental,  either  to 
the  prevention  of  crime,  or  to  the  personal  reformation  of  con- 
victs, in  the  same  degree  as  a  system  of  separation.  Whether 
the  latter  system  can  be  rendered  compatible  with  the  maintenance 
of  the  mental  sanity  of  prisoners,  is  a  subject  of  much  controversy, 
and  can  only  be  determined  by  actual  experiment,  accompanied  by 
such  advantages  as  are  proposed  in  the  model  prison. 

"  It  was  solely  with  the  view  to  the  prevention  of  insanity,  that  the 
change  of  discipline  was  introduced  here  in  July,  1841.  During  the 
five  succeeding  months  of  the  year,  only  two  prisoners  became  insane, 
both  of  whom,  under  medical  treatment  in  this  institution,  speedily 
recovered  their  reason ;  but  one  of  them  in  the  present  year  has 
suffered  a  relapse,  and  has  been  removed  to  Bethlem  Hospital.  As 
far  therefore  as  can  be  judged  from  the  present  short  experience, 
the  change  in  the  discipline  appears  to  have  had  the  effect  of  ren- 
dering the  recurrence  of  mental  disorders  less  frequent ;  but  the 
lapse  of  another  year  must  be  awaited  before  a  positive  conclusion 
can  be  safely  formed." 

"  Dr.  Baly  having  been  appointed  in  February,  1840,  for  the 
purpose  of  narrowly  watching,  in  conjunction  with  the  then  resi- 


158 


dent  surtreon,  the  health  and  condition  of  the  prisoners,  and  the 
physical  effects  of  the  separate  system  in  the  penitentiary,  com- 
pleted his  report  in  May,  1841.  That  report  has  led  to  the 
change  of  discipline  above  described,  and  to  various  other  altera- 
tions, some  already  completed,  and  others  still  in  progress,  such  as 
the  enlargement  of  the  airing-yards,  the  filling  up  of  the  moat,  the 
improved  system  of  warming  and  ventilating  the  cells,  &c.  It  is 
only  an  act  of  justice  to  Dr.  Baly,  to  state,  that  his  report  is  a 
most  able  and  elaborate  document ;  it  not  merely  embodies  the 
results  of  his  unremitting  observation  at  the  penitentiary  during 
fifteen  months,  but  it  takes  a  searching  and  comprehensive  view  of 
the  difficulties  connected  with  the  subject  of  imprisonment,  fortify- 
ing its  conclusions  throughout  by  statistical  data,  drawn  from  a 
variety  of  sources,  both  foreign  and  domestic.  It  is,  in  short,  a 
document  calculated  to  throw  important  light  on  the  science  of 
prison  discipline." 

[Extract  from  the  Millbank  Report  for  1842.] 

"  In  their  last  report,  the  committee  stated,  that  in  consequence 
of  a  distressing  increase  in  the  number  of  insane  prisoners,  a  great 
alteration  had  been  made  in  the  discipline  of  the  institution,  and 
that  the  separate  system  had  been  relaxed.  The  general  outline 
of  the  new  system,  which  came  into  operation  in  July,  1841,  is, 
that  the  prohibition  of  intercourse  between  prisoners,  is  now  lim- 
ited to  the  first  three  months  after  their  admission,  and  upon  the 
expiration  of  that  period,  they  are  placed  under  a  system  of  modi- 
fied intercourse,  consisting  of  permission  to  converse,  during  the 
hours  of  exercise,  with  two  or  more  fellow-prisoners.  This  priv- 
ilege is  liable  to  be  suspended  for  misconduct,  and  the  governor 
is  empowered  to  adopt  such  a  classification,  with  reference  to  age, 
education,  character  and  conduct,  as  may  render  the  indulgence  as 
little  injurious  as  possible  in  a  moral  point  of  view.  A  year  and 
a  half  having  elapsed  since  this  important  alteration,  the  com- 
mittee feel,  that  they  have  had  sufficient  experience  to  justify  them 
in  forming  an  opinion  of  the  comparative  merits  of  the  new  and 
old  systems.     It  was  solely  with  a  view  to  the  prevention  of  in- 


159 


sanity,  that  the  new  sj^stem  was  introduced,  and  in  that  important 
point  it  may  be  regarded  as  having  been  successful ;  for  during  the 
eighteen  months  preceding  the  introduction  of  the  system  of  modi- 
fied intercourse,  fifteen  prisoners  became  insane,  whereas  during 
the  eighteen  months  succeeding,  five  cases  only  of  insanity  have 
occurred. 

"  Intercourse  between  prisoners,  however  modified  by  limitation 
of  numbers,  or  checked  by  the  power  of  classification,  can  hardly 
ever  fail  to  be  injurious  on  moral  grounds.  Considering  the  past 
habits  of  the  generality  of  the  prisoners,  it  is  too  much  to  expect 
that  their  conversation  will  be  harmless ;  they  walk  in  parties  of 
three  each,  and  there  is  no  officer  to  overhear  what  passes  be- 
tween them ;  but  there  have  been  many  instances  where  prisoners 
have  been  so  disgusted  by  the  language  of  their  companions  as  to 
have  complained  of  it ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  evil  thus 
occasionally  brought  to  light,  bears  but  a  small  proportion  to  that 
which  continually  circulates  without  detection. 

"  The  produce  of  the  prisoners'  labor  has  been  considerably  less 
than  it  was  under  the  separate  system. 

"  It  is  some  satisfaction  to  know,  that  in  several  instances,  the 
privilege  of  intercourse  has  been  employed  as  the  means  of  im- 
parting and  receiving  good,  and  that  some  prisoners,  who  entered 
the  establishment  in  a  state  of  deplorable  ignorance,  have  ac- 
quired valuable  instruction  from  their  companions  in  their  daily 
walks." 

It  was  also  provided  at  Millbank,  in  1841,  that  the 
prisoners  of  unsound  mind,  "with  such  scrofulous  or 
debilitated  persons  as  most  required  relaxation  of  dis- 
cipline, should  he  classed  together  and  called  invalids, 
should  walk  apart  from  the  other  class,  which  required 
garden  exercise,  and  while  in  the  garden,  be  allowed 
to  converse  promiscuously ;  and,  moreover,  that  when- 
ever the   surgeon  might  think  it   necessary,  two   or 


160 


more  prisoners  under  treatment  for  insanity,  might  be 
placed  in  the  same  room,  and  while  there,  have  the 
privilege  of  conversation,  an  infirmary  assistant  being 
with  them  at  night. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  Penitentiary  at  Pen- 
tonville,  the  Penitentiary  at  Millbank  was  converted 
into  a  Depot  for  the  reception  of  all  convicts  sentenced 
to  transportation,  from  all  parts  of  Great  Britain,  pre- 
viously to  then-  shipment.  The  whole  number  of  com- 
mitments to  this  Penitentiaiy  for  the  last  four  years  is 
13,000  ;  but  in  this  number  the  persons  transferred  to 
Pentonville,  and  afterwards  sent  back,  are  twice  count- 
ed, so  that  the  number  of  separate  prisoners  is  some- 
what less.  The  number  of  cells  is  about  1,000,  and 
the  greatest  number  of  prisoners  at  any  one  time  has 
been  1484.  In  this  prison,  the  adult  prisoners  are 
kept  separate  by  night,  and  while  at  labor  by  day,  as  far 
as  their  number  will  permit. 

With  regard  to  juvenile  convicts  at  Millbank,  that  is, 
those  under  the  age  of  20  years,  no  attempt  is  made  to 
keep  them  separate,  but  they  work  together  by  day  and 
sleep  in  one  room  at  night,  but  always  under  the  supervi- 
sion of  officers.  It  is  stated,  that  in  the  year  1845,  the 
average  daily  number  of  such  juvenile  convicts  was  203. 
They  were  employed  in  social  labor,  and  the  result  of  that 
labor  was,  that  while  the  average  earnmgs  of  the  whole 
prison  including  them,  was  ^£4.9.51  per  head  in  a 
year,  the  average  earnings  of  the  young  convicts  em- 
ployed in  social  labor  taken  alone,  was  £7.6.6  each. 
The  inspectors,  in  their  official  report  for  that  year,  as- 


161 


sign  as  the  first  reason  for  this  difference,  that  "  by  the 
establishment  of  the  juvenile  ward,  which  has  been  in 
full  operation  the  whole  year,  more  than  200  prisoners 
worked  together,  hj  tvJiich  means  considerable  facilities 
are  afforded  for  instructing  them  in  trades  and  for  super- 
intending the  work  carried  onV 

Capt.  J.  K  Groves,  who  has  been  Governor  of  Mill- 
bank  for  four  years  past,  and  to  whose  custody  have 
been  thus  committed  from  all  the  Prisons  in  Great 
Britain,  the  convicts  sentenced  to  transportation ;  and 
during  the  last  two  years  the  convicts  who,  having 
completed  theii'  preparatory  education  at  Pentonville, 
were  sent  back  to  Millbank  to  pass  a  few  weeks  in 
modified  intercourse  before  their  transportation,  in  his 
testimony  before  the  Lords'  Committees  on  the  23d 
March,  1847,  volunteers,  as  the  result  of  his  observa- 
tion, the  following  statement : 

"  I  might  be  permitted  to  remark,  that  in  the  course  of  my  ex- 
perience as  the  Governor  of  the  Millbank  Prison,  I  have  observed  in 
those  prisoners  who  have  left  it,  and  in  prisoners  coming  from  dif- 
ferent prisons,  a  very  great  indisposition  to  labor  ;  and  it  is  this  aver- 
sion to  work  which  I  have  been  endeavoring  to  counteract  during  the 
time  I  have  been  Governor  of  the  Millbank  Prison.  It  is  my 
firm  opinion,  without  undervaluing  the  agency  of  religious  instruc- 
tion, that  habits  of  industry  are  not  sufficiently  inculcated  or  at- 
tended to  in  those  prisons  that  have  come  under  my  observation. 
I  do  not  think  that  a  spirit  of  industry  is  sufficiently  enforced  as  a 
matter  of  discipline.  However,  there  is  a  great  difficulty  in  ob- 
taining work  in  almost  every  prison.  I  was  asked  a  question, 
whether  I  thought  that  a  system  combining  hard  labor  at  home 
upon  the  public  works  would  be  a  good  system  ;  I  think  it  would, 
under  proper  regulation,  because  there  would  be  a  sufficiency  of 


162 


work  to  ensure  a  proper  quantity  being  done,  and  thereby  habits 
of  industry  would  be  acquired  by  the  prisoner,  which  I  think  to  be 
a  very  great  agent  in  any  reformatory  process." 

Capt.  Groves  states  particularly,  that  he  was  much 
disappointed  in  the  first  draft  of  200  sent  to  him  from 
Pentonville,   and  that   they   were  very  unwilling   to 

work. 

The  worst  class  of  convicts,  those  destined  to  Norfolk 
Island,  remain  at  Millbank  about  six  months ;  the  ma- 
jority, on  an  average,  about  four  months,  and  some 
only  a  few  days.  Those  in  the  Juvenile  Ward  remain 
there  from  twelve  to  fifteen  months. 

The  deaths  at  JMillbank,  in  1843,  were  1.89  per 
cent. ;  in  1844,  they  were  1.87  per  cent.,  and  in  1845, 
1.51  per  cent.  But  of  these,  the  juvenile  class,  who 
live  and  work  together,  formed  by  far  the  smallest  pro- 
portion ;  the  deaths  among  them  in  1845,  being  only 
.98  per  cent,  while  among  the  adults  alone  they  were 
2.53  per  cent.  There  were  four  cases  of  insanity  in 
the  whole  Prison  in  that  year,  which,  on  an  average 
number  of  984,  is  4.27  in  a  thousand. 

In  the  same  year,  1837,  in  which  the  strictest  sys- 
tem of  separation  that  ever  existed  at  Millbank,  was 
established  there,  the  Inspectors  of  Prisons  for  the 
Home  District  in  England,  in  their  annual  report,  set 
up  a  comparison  between  what  they  style  the  separate 
and  silent  systems  of  prison  discipline,  and  express 
their  uncj^ualified  preference,  on  every  account,  of  the 
former.  Their  report  of  the  next  year  is  a  still  more 
elaborate  argument  in  support  of  the  same  sentiment, 


16: 


comprehending  all  the  reasoning  and  all  the  evidence 
which  had  appeared  in  any  quarter  in  its  favor,  to- 
gether with  the  opinions  of  several  eminent  men  on  the 
same  side. 

In  consequence  of  these  Reports,  and  of  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  Inspectors,  that  the  construction  of  the 
buildings  at  Millbank  rendered  it  impracticable  to  keep 
the  prisoners  entirely  separate  from  each  other  at  all 
times  there,  the  new  Penitentiary  was  built  at  Penton- 
ville,  in  perfect  conformity  with  their  vieAvs,  and  was 
intended  to  be  a  model  for  aU  England. 

The  prisoners  were  to  be  men,  selected  from  all  those 
sentenced  to  transportation  in  Great  Britain,  between 
eighteen  and  thirty-five  years  of  age,  whose  sentence 
was  for  not  more  than  fifteen  years,  generally  those 
condemned  for  a  first  ofience,  and  such  as  were  in  per- 
fect health  and  seemed  to  be  best  fitted  for  the  disci- 
pline of  the  institution.  The  Surgeon  at  Pentonville 
had  discretionary  power  to  refuse  to  receive  any  one, 
Vv^ith  whose  appearance  on  examination  he  was  dissatis- 
fied. It  was  intended,  that  after  an  average  confine- 
ment of  eighteen  months,  they  should  be  transported 
to  Van  Diemen's  Land,  but  subject  to  different  degrees 
of  restriction  on  their  arrival  there,  depending  on  their 
conduct  in  prison.  The  Government  indeed  positively 
required,  that  no  one  should  be  admitted  to  this  Peni- 
tentiary who  was  not  irrevocably  doomed  to  transport- 
ation. 

The  Chapel  is  divided  into  stalls,  so  that  while  all 
the  prisoners  see  the   preacher,  they  cannot  see  each 


164 


otlier.  But  as  it  contains  seats  for  only  half  the  num- 
ber of  prisoners,  each  convict  attends  prayers  but  once 
a  day,  and  hears  three  sermons  in  a  fortnight,  that 
number  being  preached  every  Sunday.  Two  days  in 
the  week,  beside  Sunday,  are  devoted  to  instruction, 
which  is  given  by  the  principal  schoolmaster  in  the 
chapel,  and  by  his  three  assistants  in  the  separate  cells. 
As  only  every  alternate  stall  is  occupied  in  school 
hours  in  order  to  prevent  communication,  no  more 
than  one  sixth  part  of  the  prisoners  are  present  at  the 
same  time,  and  each  school  lasts  two  hours.  They  read 
and  recite  aloud,  and  there  was  a  case  of  punishment 
in  1845  for  "wilfully  creating  laughter,  and  causing 
interruption  and  confusion  in  the  school  by  improper 
questions  and  remarks."  Very  nearly  half  the  whole 
number  of  punishments  inflicted  on  the  prisoners  are 
for  communicating  or  attempting  to  communicate  with 
each  other. 

The  prisoners  take  turns  in  cleaning  the  corridors 
every  morning,  which  occupies  an  hour,  during  which 
time  several  are  in  company  with  each  other,  but  under 
the  supervision  of  an  officer  to  prevent  all  intercourse. 
They  likewise  pass  an  hour  every  day  in  their  exer- 
cising yards  in  company,  but  under  similar  supervision 
and  at  fifteen  feet  distance  from  each  other.  But  in 
order  to  prevent  their  recognition  of  each  other  in 
future,  each  prisoner  while  exercising,  washing  the  cor- 
ridors, or  passing  to  or  from  the  chapel,  is  obliged  to 
wear  his  cap-peak  over  his  face  ;  that  is  to  draw  down 
the  leather  visor  of  his  cap,  which  is  long  enough  to 


165 


reach  to  his  mouth,  and  has  holes  in  it  to  peep  through. 
This  is  deemed  to  constitute  complete  separation. 

All  their  work  however  is  done  in  solitude ;  for 
which  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason,  since  their 
cap-peaks  might  be  so  contrived  as  not  very  greatly  to 
impede  their  labor,  and  in  that  case  they  might,  in  the 
open  air,  or  in  large  workshops,  at  fifteen  feet  dis- 
tance from  each  other,  have  labor  and  exercise  at  the 
same  time,  and  a  great  deal  more  of  both. 

The  most  striking  peculiarities,  however,  of  this  mas- 
querade are  the  reason  for  it  and  the  termination  of  it. 
In  the  second  Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  the 
Pentonville  prison  we  find  the  following  passage  : 

"  The  utmost  vigilance  has  been  exercised  in  order  to  maintain 
inviolate  that  important  principle  of  separate  confinement,  which 
deprives  prisoners  of  the  means  of  recognizing  each  other  on  leav- 
ing the  prison.  To  effect  this  object,  each  prisoner  when  out  of 
his  cell  for  any  purpose,  wears  his  cap  with  the  peak  down,  which 
is  sufficiently  large  to  cover  his  face  as  low  as  the  mouth,  and 
effectually  prevents  prisoners  from  becoming  acquainted  with  each 
other's  features." 

The  British  government  appears  to  have  been  fully 
aware  of  the  immense  importance  of  this  jorinciple,  and 
determined  to  carry  it  out  to  the  uttermost ;  and  ac- 
cordingly, in  order  to  "make  assurance  double  sure,"  and 
to  render  it  absolutely  impossible  that  any  one  of  these 
prisoners  should  ever  recognize  another,  they  caused 
them,  on  leaving  Pentonville,  to  be  placed,  three  or 
four  hundred  together,  on  board  a  convict  ship,  and  to 
make  a  voyage  of  four  or  five  months  to  Van  Diemen's 

22 


166 


Land,  without  cap-peak,  mask,  visor,  veil,  or  any  other 
concealment  of  their  features  whatsoever. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  result  of  this  system ;  re- 
marking, however,  that  as  the  situation  of  the  prison 
is  healthy,  as  its  inmates  are  picked  men,  and  as  it  is 
not  uncommon  to  send  back  to  Millbank  or  to  the 
Hulks  those  found  to  be  unfit  for  the  discipline  of  the 
institution,  and  to  procure  medical  pardons  for  those 
affected  with  consumption  or  other  fatal  disease,  that 
they  may  go  out  of  the  prison  to  die ;  the  health  of 
the  prisoners,  after  all  this  sifting,  ought  to  be  far  bet- 
ter and  the  deaths  much  fewer  than  that  of  persons  at 
large  of  the  same  age  in  the  vicinity.  But  if  the 
medical  pardons  are  counted  as  deaths,  as  they  ought 
to  be,  this  is  far  from  the  fact.  For  the  four  years 
during  which  the  prison  at  Pentonville  has  been  occu- 
pied, the  actual  deaths  have  been  6.64  in  a  thousand, 
the  deaths,  including  medical  pardons,  15.70,  and  those 
in  the  population  of  London,  between  twenty  and 
forty  years  of  age,  10.60  in  a  thousand.  The  cases  of 
insanity  were  for  the  first  year,  9.03  in  a  thousand,  for 
the  whole  four  years  2.29,  and  for  the  last  three  years 
alone  1.48.  But  this  does  not  include  cases  of  delu- 
sion. If  these  were  included,  the  proportion  would  be 
more  than  three  times  as  great  as  that  last  mentioned. 
The  cases  of  mania  all  occurred  within  the  first  four- 
teen months,  nine  of  the  twelve  cases  of  delusion 
within  the  first  ten  months,  and  the  other  three  from 
the  fifteenth  to  the  twenty-first  month. 

The  first  embarkation  of  prisoners  from  Pentonville 


167 


was  made  on  board  the  Sir  George  Seymour  in  October, 
1844,  and  consisted  of  345  who  had  been  in  the  prison 
from  fifteen  to  twenty-two  months.  The  Surgeon- 
superintendent  of  that  ship  states,  that  he  "  experienced 
some  difficulty  in  berthing  and  arranging  these  men, 
who,  apparently  from  not  having  been  associated  to- 
gether for  some  time,  were  slow  in  comprehending 
orders,  and  equally  slow  in  obeying  them,  though  evi- 
dently tractable  and  willing ;  in  fact,  they  had  lost 
their  gregarious  habits,  and  did  not  again  acquire  them 
until  after  some  weeks." 

"  The  sudden  change  from  great  seclusion  to  the 
bustle  and  noise  of  a  crowded  ship,  produced  a  number 
of  cases  of  convulsions,  attended  in  some  instances  with 
nausea  and  vomiting,  in  others  simulating  hysteria,  and 
in  all  being  of  a  most  anomalous  character.  The  re- 
cumbent position,  fresh  air,  mild  stimulants,  &c.  were 
found  beneficial  in  all  these  cases,  and  after  three  days 
the  convulsions  disappeared." 

In  a  subsequent  letter  tliis  officer  says,  that  his  ex- 
pression as  to  the  loss  of  gregarious  habits  had  been 
greatly  misunderstood,  "  that  he  only  meant  that  the 
men  had  lost  the  habit  of  acting  in  concert  as  prisoners 
generally  do ;  that  so  far  from  this  being  a  matter  to 
be  regretted,  he  considered  it  a  great  gain,  as  the  gen- 
eral habit  that  prisoners  have  of  acting  together  is  in- 
jurious." He  adds,  "  that  there  was  no  want  of  energy 
amongst  them,  no  lassitude,  and  that  he  decidedly 
would  have  preferred  them  to  other  convicts  as  active, 
cleanly  and  industrious ;  that  they  were  physically  as 


1G8 


well  and  morally  better."  He  says  also,  that  the  con- 
vulsions were  altogether  hysterical,  and  were  propa- 
gated by  imitation,  and  ceased  after  the  third  day, 
leaving  no  bad  effects. 

The  commissioners  of  Pentonville  ordered  that  thence- 
forth the  prisoners  should  "  be  associated  together  "  at 
Millbank,  for  a  few  weeks  previous  to  embarkation, 
which  shows  that  they  did  not  think  these  indications 
of  disease  entirely  unimportant,  and  that  they  could 
guess  thek  cause.  The  great  gain,  which  the  prisoners 
derived  from  losing  their  gregarious  habits,  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  of  much  practical  use  to  them, 
since  they  reacquired  those  habits  after  some  weeks. 
Whatever  confidence  may  be  placed  in  the  Surgeon- 
superintendent's  opinions,  at  least  as  much  must  be 
placed  in  his  statements  of  fact,  and  to  be  slow  in 
comprehending  orders,  and  slow  in  obeying  them,  how- 
ever gainful  it  may  be  on^  board  a  convict  ship,  is  no 
qualification  for  earning  a  living  in  this  country. 

The  Surgeon-superintendent  of  the  Maitland,  which 
sailed  from  England  for  Van  Diemen's  land  in  June, 
1846,  having  on  board  299  convicts,  of  whom  196  were 
adults  from  Pentonville,  the  rest  boys  from  Millbank 
and  Parkhurst  prisons,  says,  "  there  has  not  been  any 
decided  case  of  mental  imbecility  on  board  this  ship, 
but  I  have  observed  several  laboring  under  a  sluggish- 
ness of  intellect,  a  slowness  of  thought  and  action,  for 
the  first  few  weeks  they  w^ere  on  board,  but  which  has 
now  entirely  worn  off."  As  the  convicts  in  tliis  coun- 
try must  go  forth,  at  the  end  of  their  imprisonment. 


169 


into  society  unfettered  and  unrestrained,  to  earn  their 
own  living,  a  system  which  renders  them  incapable  of 
doing  so  even  for  a  few  weeks  cannot  be  adopted. 
When  the  only  alternative,  for  however  short  a  time,  is 
starving  or  stealing,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  even 
the  most  reformed  of  our  convicts  should  be  saints 
enough  to  choose  the  former ;  and  once  returned  to 
their  old  courses  and  their  old  companions,  they  will 
not  of  their  own  accord  quit  them  again. 

The  official  reports  of  the  commissioners  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  Pentonville  are  all  pictures  of  complete 
success.  The  last,  dated  March  10, 1847,  recapitulates 
their  early  prophecies  of  the  perfect  operation  of  this 
system,  and  claims  for  them  the  merit  of  complete  ful- 
filment ;  dwelling  particularly  on  the  immense  benefit 
conferred  upon  the  Australian  colonies  by  sending  there 
Pentonville  prisoners,  and  on  the  eager  desire  of  the 
colonists  to  receive  them. 

But  before  that  report  was  written,  a  cry  from  those 
distant  regions  had  already  reached  the  ears  of  the 
British  ministers,  and  had  led  to  a  scrutiny,  the  result 
of  which  was  a  determination,  that  the  transportation 
of  convicts  to  Australia  must  be  suspended  for  years,  if 
not  abolished  forever.  Probably  it  would  be  abolished, 
if  it  were  not  for  the  difficulty  of  deciding  in  what 
other  manner  to  dispose  permanently  of  three  or  four 
thousand  convicts  a  year. 

It  may  be  remarked  also,  that  at  the  time  when  this 
last  report  was  made,  some  of  the  individuals  connected 
with  this  institution,  speaking  under  that  deep  sense  of 


170 

personal  responsibility  which  can  never  be  so  strongly 
felt  by  any  official  board,  express  themselves  with  a 
degree  of  hesitation  as  to  the  perfect  success  of  this 
system,  somewhat  different  from  the  unbounded  con- 
fidence of  earlier  days. 

The  chaplain,  in  his  last  report,  dated  February  13, 
1847,  observes  that  "the  monotony  of  solitude  has 
been  broken  every  day  by  social  ivorship,  in  which  they 
take  a  part  and  feel  an  interest  —  an  immense  support 
to  the  mind  —  and  weekly  more  than  once,  by  collect- 
ive instruction  in  school."  He  states,  that  the  greater 
part  have  not  been  unduly  depressed,  and  when  they 
begin  to  take  an  interest  in  trade  or  education  are  re- 
markably  cheerful.  His  report  contaiiis  also  the  fol- 
lowing passages  : 

"  But  asserting  thus  my  conviction  as  to  the  favorable  resuhs  in 
general  of  the  experiment  in  Pentonville  as  regards  mind,  I  am 
compelled,  by  another  year's  most  anxious  observation  on  the  actual 
working  of  the  system,  to  say  that  there  are  cases  where  it  is  oth- 
erwise,—  i.  e.  where  men  taking  no  interest  in  religion,  or  books, 
or  trade,  and  having  no  confidence  in  any  one,  make  their  confine- 
ment one  of  almost  absolute  solitude." 

"  My  impression  is,  that  cases  likely  to  prove  unequal  to  separate 
confinement  are  generally  discoverable  from  three  to  six  months 
after  reception." 

"  Now  there  seem  to  me  to  be  several  conditions  of  mind  from 
which  danger  may  be  apprehended,  viz. 

"  1.  When,  from  sullen  obstinacy,  no  interest  is  taken  in  any 
instruction  given  here. 

"  2.  When,  from  want  of  capacity  to  learn  books  or  trade,  there 
is  no  progress. 


171 


"  3.  When,  naturally  active  and  energetic,  it  has  ceased  to 
make  progress. 

"  4.  When  it  dwells  intently  and  exclusively  on  any  one  sub- 
ject." 

"  The  duration  of  separate  confinement  here  has  varied  from 
fifteen  to  twenty-two  months ;  and  a  great  number  of  these  men 
had  undergone,  from  their  conviction  to  their  final  departure  from 
England,  fully  two  years'  confinement. 

"  Now  certainly  very  many,  indeed  I  would  say  the  most,  of 
those  who  endured  longest  imprisonment,  appeared  to  me  not  to 
have  suffered  materially  in  any  respect.  They  seemed,  however, 
to  have  become  less  robust,  or  to  speak  more  correctly,  according 
to  my  own  impression,  from  distinct  recollection  of  them  on  en- 
trance, positively  delicate.  Almost  every  one  of  them  complained 
of  a  loss  of  strength. 

"  But,  however  this  may  be  as  regards  the  physical  energies  of 
the  men,  there  seems  no  sufficient  reason,  on  moral  and  religious 
grounds,  for  wishing  for  any  extension  of  the  period  of  separation 
beyond  eighteen  months,  but  the  reverse.''''  * 

"  I  have  therefore  desired  to  see  here  not  only  the  advantages 
which  separation  affords  for  breaking  off"  old  habits,  for  instilling 
right  principles,  and  for  forming  new  habits  of  thought  and  right 
feeling,  but  also  some  well-directed  means  for  giving  them  daily 
exercise  in  the  active  duties  of  religion  and  society,  before  they 
pass  from  their  almost  solitary  condition  here,  into  the  world 
again. 

"  I  think  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  what  is  aimed  at  in  all 
the  costly  efforts  for  the  reformation  of  men  here,  is  not  only  to 
keep  them  from  further  evil  and  final  destruction  to  themselves, 
but  also  to  fit  them  for  society  and  the  active  duties  of  life,  and 
that  both  these  objects  cannot  be  fully  secured  by  separate  confine- 
ment. 

"  From  what  I  have  observed  of  the  men  upon  their  being 
brought  together  prior  to  embarkation,  and  especially  on   the  first 

*  The  italics  are  the  chaplain's. 


172 


of  these  occasions^  I  am  persuaded  that  much  additional  good  would 
be  accomplished,  after  a  period  of  separate  imprisonment,  by  a 
well-ref'ulated  system  of  associated  labor,  instruction,  and  worship. 
"  Men  really  reformed  would  prove,  as  I  have  seen  them  on 
board  the  ships  referred  to,  most  useful  to  their  fellow  prisoners  ; 
the  greater  part  would  prove  capable,  I  am  confident,  of  being 
raised  to  proper  feelings  as  men,  and  the  thoroughly  bad  would  be 
sooner  discovered  than  is  possible  under  separation,  and  disposed 
of  as  they  deserve." 

Major  Jebb,  one  of  the  commissioners  for  the  man- 
agement of  the  Pentonville  prison,  and  high  authority 
on  this  subject,  in  his  testimony  given  before  the  Lords 
Committees,  March  22,  1847,  uses  very  guarded  lan- 
guage. Having  stated  that  the  prisoners  are  very 
carefully  selected  as  fit  subjects,  between  the  ages  of 
eighteen  and  thu'ty-five,  free  from  all  diseases,  which 
would  render  them  likely  to  fail  under  the  separate 
system,  especially  from  any  predisposition  to  insanity 
or  consumption,  carefully  examined  by  the  medical 
officer  at  Millbank  before  being  sent  to  PentonA'ille, 
and  again  by  the  medical  officer  there,  who  may 
refuse  any  one  ;  he  adds,  "  With  these  limitations 
the  discipline  has  been  generally  safely  carried  out, 
as  far  as  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  judging.  I 
think  we  might  make  some  little  modification  in  those 
cases,  where  the  health  apparently  is  beginning  to  fail ; 
some  little  modification  in  those  cases  would  be  ne- 
cessary, in  order  to  insure  a  better  result  than  that 
which  we  already  have  had." 

Of  the  prison  at  Parkhurst,  though  a  national  insti- 
tution, it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  in  detail,  since  it 


17' 


is  not  so  much  a  penitentiary  for  men,  as  what  we 
should  call  a  house  of  reformation  for  juvenile  offend- 
jers.  Its  inmates  are  selected  from  those  sent  to  Mill- 
bank  for  transportation,  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years. 
They  pass  two  or  three  years  in  this  prison.  Eor  the 
first  four  months  the  prisoner  v;orks  and  takes  his 
meals  in  his  cell,  but  is  taken  out  of  it  twenty  minutes 
in  the  morning  to  wash,  shortly  afterwards  an  hour  to 
attend  in  the  chapel,  an  hour  and  a  half  for  exercise, 
two  hours  at  school,  and  fifteen  minutes  for  evening 
prayers,  at  all  which  times,  as  well  as  in  the  chapel  on 
Sunday  he  is  in  company  with  other  boys,  but  is  not 
allowed  to  speak  to  them. 

After  this  period  of  probation,  he  is  placed  in  a  ward 
containing  between  one  hundred  and  two  hundred  in- 
dividuals, who  work  together,  take  their  meals  together, 
and  exercise  together,  and  are  allowed  free  conversa- 
tion while  exercising  in  the  yards  four  times  a  day ; 
but  who  are  at  all  times  under  the  inspection  of  war- 
dens. 

This  institution,  first  opened  in  December  1838,  has 
been  eminently  successful.  There  has  been  no  case  of 
insanity,  and  the  deaths  have  been  somewhat  fewer 
than  among  the  free  population  of  the  same  age  in  the 
vicinity,  as  they  have  been  with  us  in  Charlestown. 

The  general  penitentiary  for  the  kingdom  of  Scot- 
land is  at  Perth.  The  prisoners  confined  there  are  not 
destined  to  transportation,  but  at  the  termination  of 
their  imprisonment  return  into  society  ;  and  in  this  re- 
spect that  prison  resembles  our  own  more  nearly  than 

23 


174 


the  penitentiaries  of  England  do.  The  system  of  disci- 
pline imitates  that  of  Pentonville,  excepting  that  the 
prisoners  receive  all  their  instruction  in  their  cells. 
This  amounts  on  the  average  to  about  seven  minutes 
in  a  day.  They  exercise  in  yards  and  galleries  in  com- 
pany sixty-four  minutes  and  a  half  every  day,  with  the 
same  mummery  of  cap-peaks  as  at  Penton^olle  ;  but  at 
the  distance  of  six  feet  from  each  other  instead  of  fif- 
teen feet.  To  prevent  their  overstepping  this  limit,  a 
long  rope  is  provided  having  loops  in  it  at  this  distance 
from  each  other,  in  one  of  which  each  prisoner  inserts 
his  hand,  while  he  walks  round  the  yard  for  his  sixty- 
four  minutes  and  a  half 

This  procession,  which  must  resemble  the  march 
of  a  gang  of  gaUey  slaves  more  than  anything  else, 
being  an  appendage  to  the  separate  system,  is  no  doubt 
admired  by  those,  who  consider  the  marching  of  the 
prisoners  at  Charlestown,  in  a  single  file  from  their 
cells  to  the  chapel,  as  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  man ; 
and  who  maintain,  "  that  aU  these  enforced  evolutions  of 
grown-up  men,  tend  to  destroy  the  individuality  of  char- 
acter, to  lessen  self-respect,  and  to  degrade  responsible 
beings  into  irresponsible  machines." 

The  testimony  in  relation  to  the  prison  at  Perth, 
before  the  Lords  Committees,  taken  April  16,  1847,  is 
not  entirely  satisfactory.  Not  that  any  doubt  is  en- 
tertained of  the  integrity  of  the  witnesses ;  but  some 
of  their  statements  seem  to  invite  a  little  cross-ex- 
amination. For  one  instance,  the  sheriff  of  Perthshire 
stated,  that  "  unless  from  indisposition,  or  a  tendency 


175 


to  weakness  of  mind,  or  some  other  sufficient  cause, 
the  separation  was  carried  out  strictly." 

It  is  important  to  know  what  and  how  many  are 
these  sufficient  causes,  and  in  what  manner  they  are 
provided  for.  Is  it  by  permitting  the  invalids  to  be 
put  together  into  a  garden  and  allowed  free  inter- 
course with  each  other  by  day,  or  by  lodging  two  or 
more  of  them  in  the  same  room  at  night  ? 

To  be  frequently  in  company  with  others  having 
cap-peaks  over  their  faces,  is  the  daily  practice  both 
at  Perth  and  Pentonville,  and  we  are  assured  by  grave 
governors  and  by  reverend  chaplains,  that  the  pris- 
oners, who  have  been  thus  associated  every  day  for 
months,  can  never  recognize  each  other  after  their  dis- 
charge ;  and  what  is  more,  we  are  expected  to  believe 
it,  in  spite  of  every  day's  experience  to  the  contrary. 
Surely  it  is  impossible  to  step  into  the  street,  or  to 
look  into  it,  without  recognizing  many  persons,  whose 
features  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  see ;  and  it  is  no 
more  easy  for  us  to  distinguish  an  individual  merely 
by  his  size,  form,  bearing,  gait  and  other  movements, 
because  we  have  seen  his  face  at  some  other  time,  than 
if  we  had  not  done  so. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  consider  the  discipline  of  the 
borough  and  county  jails  in  England,  though  some  of 
them  have  adopted  a  system  of  separation  similar  to 
that  of  the  penitentiary  at  Penton\dUe,  because  it  ap- 
pears from  the  evidence  before  the  Lords  Committees 
last  spring,  that  in  none  of  them  is  this  system  carried 
out  so  thoroughly  as  in  that  penitentiary,  and  that  iA 


176 


most  of  them  it  has  been  established  but  a  short  time. 
Beside  which,  the  sentences  of  most  of  the  persons 
committed  to  these  prisons  are  for  comparatively  brief 
periods.  In  the  five  years  ending  with  1843,  of  nearly 
eighty  thousand  persons  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
after  trial  by  jury  in  England  and  Wales,  more  than 
seventy  thousand  were  imprisoned  for  a  shorter  term 
than  one  year ;  and  of  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  thousand,  imprisoned  after  summary  conviction 
before  magistrates,  more  than  three  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-six thousand  were  sentenced  for  less  than  a  year, 
and  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand 
for  less  than  two  months ;  many  for  seven,  fourteen, 
or  twenty-one  days. 

Imprisonment  for  very  short  periods  cannot  produce 
reform  by  eradicating  old  habits  or  establishing  new, 
nor  tend  for  the  most  part  to  prevent  crime  in  any 
other  manner,  than  by  inspiring  a  dread  of  the  pun- 
ishment. How  far  this  should  be  carried,  and  in  what 
manner  it  may  be  rendered  most  effectual  in  any  par- 
ticular place,  depends  so  much  upon  the  state  of  so- 
ciety and  of  public  opinion  in  that  place,  that  no 
general  rules  can  be  laid  down  upon  the  subject, — with 
our  present  limited  experience  of  the  various  schemes, 
which  have  been  suggested,  —  excepting  such  as  hu- 
manity wiU  dictate  to  every  one. 

The  laws  of  this  State  already  provide,  that  in 
county  jails,  or  houses  of  correction,  no  two  prisoners, 
other  than  debtors,  shall  ever  occupy  the  same  room, 
except  for  work,  unless  in  case  of  absolute  necessity  ; 


177 


—  that  debtors  shall  be  kept  separate  from  those  ac- 
cused or  convicted  of  crimes  —  the  accused  from  con- 
victs—  minors  from  notorious  offenders  —  those  ac- 
cused or  convicted  of  mere  offences,  from  those  ac- 
cused or  convicted  of  infamous  crimes  —  that  no  two 
of  these  various  classes  shall  ever  meet,  except  for 
labor  or  for  moral  or  religious  instruction,  and  that 
no  communication  shall  be  allowed  between  prisoners 
of  the  different  classes.  Whether  any  further  pro- 
visions may  be  necessary  in  relation  to  these  matters 
need  not  now  be  discussed. 

The  British  government,  enlightened  by  experience, 
has  determined  to  make  an  important  change  in  its 
whole  system  of  secondary  punishments ;  and  last 
June,  a  plan  was  submitted  to  Parliament  for  this  pur- 
pose, which  will  undoubtedly  be  definitively  acted  on  at 
the  next  session.  It  proposes,  that  convicts  under 
sentence  of  transportation,  shall  pass  from  six  to 
eighteen  months,  —  one  year  on  an  average,  —  under  a 
system  of  discipline  like  that  established  at  Penton- 
ville,  and  shall  afterwards  labor  together  in  gangs 
on  the  public  works  in  Gibraltar,  or  Bermuda,  or  in 
the  new  harbors  of  refuge  in  England.  The  time 
fixed  for  their  labor  is  to  bear  some  relation  to  the 
length  of  their  sentences,  so  that  one  condemned  to 
seven  years  transportation  will  after  four  years  of 
labor  be,  in  case  of  good  conduct,  entirely  discharged, 
whereas  the  greater  criminals,  sentenced  to  much 
longer  terms  of  transportation,  after  laboring  on  the 
public  works  for  the  time  allotted  to  them,  would  be 


178 


transported  to  one  of  the  Australian  colonies,  to  earn 
their  own  living  there,  but  prohibited  from  leaving 
the  colony  during  the  time  of  the  original  sentence. 
This  would  greatly  diminish  the  number  of  persons 
transported;  for,  while  seven  years  is  the  shortest  period 
for  which  this  punishment  is  inflicted  in  Great  Britain, 
it  is  also  the  most  common.  Great  importance  also 
must  be  attached  to  the  statement  of  Captain  Groves, 
that  it  is  always  difficult  to  obtain  sufficient  employ- 
ment in  the  prisons  of  Great  Britain ;  whereas  it  is 
obvious,  that  on  the  public  works  the  men  might  be 
kept  constantly  and  actively  occupied. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  new  system  now  proposed 
to  be  established  there,  provides  for  one  year  of  Pen- 
tonville  discipline,  followed  by  four  or  more  years  of 
social  labor.  During  this  latter  period,  we  are  told  that 
the  prisoners  are  to  receive  moral  and  religious  instruc- 
tion, and  to  be  entkely  separated  from  each  other  by 
night.  This  is  well.  And  if  it  is  designed  also  to 
furnish  them,  during  the  intervals  of  labor,  with  the 
means  and  opportunity  of  such  intellectual  culture  as 
they  are  capable  of  receiving,  —  to  guard  carefully 
thek  intercourse  by  day,  —  and  to  prevent  their  hav- 
ing free  and  uncontrolled  conversation  by  night ;  it  is 
a  design  worthy  of  the  greatness,  the  wisdom,  and  the 
benevolence  of  England.  If  not — those  establishments 
are  likely  to  become  what  our  older  prisons  were,  mere 
schools  of  depravity  and  guilt ;  and  it  behooves  her  to 
hold  out  to  such  prisoners  every  possible  inducement  to 
enlist  abroad,  and  remain  there.     Let  her  beware  that 


I 


179 


they  never  return  at  any  time,  or  in  any  event  to  her  own 
shores.     Better  recall  the  "  wolves,  her  old  inhabitants." 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  in  the  debates  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  on  the  third  and  tenth  of  June  last.  Sir 
George  Grey,  expressed  his  concurrence  in  the  opinion 
of  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  and  Dr.  Ferguson,  who  had 
both  been  on  the  commission  for  the  management  of 
Pentonville  prison,  that  the  utmost  watchfulness  and 
discretion  on  the  part  of  the  governor,  chaplain  and 
medical  attendants,  would  be  requisite  in  order  to  ad- 
minister the  system  established  there  with  safety,  and 
Sir  James  Graham  repeated  the  same  sentiment.  Now, 
why  urge  the  necessity  of  extreme  caution,  if  there  is 
not  extreme  danger?  We  hear  nothing  of  this  ne- 
cessity with  relation  to  Parkhurst  or  to  Charlestown. 
And  if  there  is  great  danger  that  the  bodily  and  mental 
health  will  in  many  cases  be  so  deranged  as  to  require 
medical  interference,  is  there  not  a  certainty,  that  in 
many  more  there  will  be  a  degree  of  debility  and  de- 
pression not  amounting  to  positive  disease,  which  no 
vigilance  can  detect;  in  which  the  intellect  will  be 
enfeebled  without  being  prostrated,  and  the  nervous 
system  seriously  impaired,  though  not  absolutely  shat- 
tered ?  These  effects  when  perceived,  may  perhaps  be 
deemed  hereafter,  as  they  have  been  heretofore,  to  be 
evidences  of  reformation.  But  it  is  a  capital  error  to 
suppose  that  they  promote  or  indicate  any  real  im- 
provement of  the  morals  or  of  the  intellect. 

As  the  British  government,  however,  already  pro- 
poses to  reduce  the  average  time  of  confinement  at  Pen- 


180 


tonville  from  eighteen  months  to  twelve,  and  appears  to 
be  aware  of  the  necessity  of  the  utmost  watchfulness 
in  this  matter,  it  may  be  presumed  that  it  will  ex- 
ercise such  watchfulness,  and  if  further  experience 
should  recommend  it,  will  confine  the  application  of 
this  system  of  social  separation  and  laborious  idleness, 
to  three  months  or  three  weeks ;  the  less  the  better ; 
though  it  cannot  be  expected  entirely  to  abandon  an 
establishment,  which  was  built  at  so  great  a  cost,  and 
with  such  lofty  predictions. 

But  there  is  surely  nothing  in  this  model  system, 
which  we  need  wish  to  imitate.  Their  daily  walks 
are  unnecessary  here,  for  vigorous  toil  is  exercise 
enough.  We  need  not  set  apart  two  days  in  the  week 
for  the  moral  and  intellectual  culture  of  our  prisoners, 
for  their  labor  is  not  so  oppressive  and  exhausting  as  to 
prevent  their  having  the  strength,  as  they  have  the 
time  for  it  every  day ;  and  this  daily  variety  of  occu- 
pation seems  to  us  better  than  to  give  the  whole  day 
to  one  pursuit  alone  ;  far  better  than  one  whole  year 
of  Pentonville  education  followed  by  four  years  of  un- 
mitigated toil. 

It  is  not  pretended,  that  the  system  established  here 
is  perfect.  Far  from  it.  It  is  hoped  that  it  may  go 
on  improving  from  year  to  year,  and  still  be  regarded 
as  an  experiment,  a  system  upon  trial ;  and  not  one 
whose  invariable  success  we  are  willing  to  vouch  for, 
or  to  the  future  support  of  which  we  are  in  any  man- 
ner pledged.  The  system  which  will  produce  a  com- 
plete reformation  in  all  convicts,  or  in  most  of  them, 
is  yet  to  be  discovered. 


181 


Still  less  is  it  presumed  to  urge  its  adoption  on  other 
countries,  or  to  express  the  slightest  regret  or  aston- 
ishment, that  they  do  not  prefer  it  to  their  own.  It 
may  well  be,  that  a  mode  of  prison  discipline  fitted 
for  Massachusetts,  with  its  few  hundred  convicts, 
is  inapplicable  to  England  with  her  thousands.  It 
may  be  that  France,  with  her  immense  resources,  and 
her  sisters  of  charity  and  her  brothers  of  charity,  can 
furnish  every  one  of  her  convicts  with  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  virtuous  companions ;  and  that  other  nations 
of  Europe  may  have  special  reasons  unknown  to  us  for 
establishing  difierent  systems.  Of  these  things  they 
must  judge  for  themselves.  But  without  the  slightest 
disposition  to  dictate  to  them,  we  do  not  feel  called 
upon  in  relation  to  this  subject  to  submit  to  their  dic- 
tation. 

Considering,  then,  that  from  the  experience  of  our 
own  country  hitherto,  it  appears  that  the  system  of 
constant  separation  as  estal)irshed  Here^  even  when  ad- 
ministered with  the  utmost  humanity,  produces  so 
many  cases  of  insanity  and  of  death  as  to  indicate 
most  clearly,  that  its  general  tendency  is  to  enfeeble 
the  body  and  the  mind;  —  considering  that  the  results 
of  labor  tinder  our  different  systems,  where  both  are 
best  enforced,  abundantly  show,  that  habits  of  industry 
and  skill  in  laborious  occupations,  may  be  more  speed- 
ily an4-efieetually  acquired  by  working  in  company 
with:  ^hers  under  the  constant  inspection  of  a  master, 
than  they  usually  are  in  entire  soljtiLde  ;  —  considering 
that  our  system  of  social  labor  is  found  to  afford  suffi- 

24 


182 

r^ient  gratification  of  the  natural  instinct  for  society 
to   prevent  any   more   frequent  derangement   of  the 

,   health  or  of  the  intellect  in  prison  than  takes  place 

'  in  the  community  at  large;  —  and  considering  that 
this   system   may   be   maintained,  and  is  maintained 

l--^mong  us  without  frequent  or  cruel  punishments  ;  —  it 
may  be  concluded  that  it  ought  to  be  persevered  in, 
until  stronger  evidence  than  has  yet  been  produced, 
shall  show  some  other  system  to  be  better  adapted 
to  our  condition. 

Amiable  enthusiasts  among  ourselves  may  tell  us, 
that  the  benevolence  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
will  supply  the  State  Prison  at  Charlestown,  with  thirty 
or  forty  gardens  embellished  w^ith  flow^ers,  and  re- 
freshed with  fountains  throughout  the  year ;  and  that 
for  every  four  convicts  committed  to  it,  there  will  be 
found  one  enlightened,  accomplished  and  discreet  man, 
w^ho  will  gratuitously  incarcerate  himself  with  them 
to  afford  them  the  benefit  of  his  society.  But  the 
sober  judgment  of  New^  England  w^ill  not  be  deluded 
by  such  dreams. 

And  even  if  it  were  possible  to  admit  such  impossi- 
bilities, any  system,  however  modified  and  improved, 
which  allows  none  but  solitary  labor,  though  it  pro- 
vide abundant  means  and  opportunities  for  exercise 
and  for  society,  is  still  exposed  to  this  great  objection, 
that  such  labor  must  be  interrupted  for  the  purpose  of 
exercise  and  for  the  purpose  of  society,  and  is  always 
liable  to  be  interrupted  and  made  desultory  by  the 
listlessness  or  caprice  of  the  convict ;  and  that  there- 


183 


fore  it  will  not  be  that  diligent  labor,  from  which 
alone,  according  to  John  Howard,  honesty  is  to  be  ex- 
pected ;  without  which  a  subsistence  cannot  be  earned 
in  an  industrious  community  ;  and  which  can  be  made 
easy  in  no  other  way  than  by  being  made  habitual ;  — 
so  that  under  such  a  system,  only  a  portion  of  the  day 
can  be  given  to  either  of  these  three  essential  objects. 
Whereas  they  are  all  combined  together  under  the 
system  of  social  labor,  in  which  all  the  time  occupied 
by  work  is  given  to  each  of  them ;  and  thus  the  prison- 
ers in  general  have  at  one  and  the  same  time  every 
day,  eight  hours  of  diligent  and  useful  toil,  —  eight 
hours  of  manly  exercise,  —  eight  hours  of  social  exist- 
ence,—  and  time  enough  left  for  penitence  and  for  in- 
struction. 


APPENDIX  . 


No.  I.     (  p.  79.  ) 
[From  the  Boston  Courier,  corrected  by  the  compiler.] 

Comparative  Expense  of  the  New  Penitentiary  in  Philadelphia,  and  the 
State  Prison  at  Charlestown,  from  1828  to  1846,  inclusive  —  on  the 
authority  of  the  Auditor-General's  Reports  for  Pennsylvania,  and 
Slate  Prison  Documents  for  Massachusetts. 


New  Penitentiary  in  Philadelphia  - 

—  Paid  from  State  Treasury. 

a 

o 

Authority  — 
Page  of  Audit- 
or's Report. 

Inspectors  and 
others,  on  ac- 
count of  New 
Penitentiary. 

5S 

o 

o 

73 

ConveyingCon- 

vicls. 

Bounty  to  Con- 
victs. 

Amount    charg- 
ed  to    coun- 
ties for  sup- 
port of  their 
Convicts. 

1828 

28—29 

4,000 

672  19 

1829 

5,000 

1,000  00 

411   27 

1830 

32—33 

4,000 

3,784  50 

1,159   U 

1831 

«      II 

3,746  53 

1,177  96 

1832 

35—36 

4,045  43 

1,144  05 

1833 

37—38 

40,000 

4,312  50 

1,350  22 

1834 

"      " 

80,000 

4,379  91 

1,636  57 

243  00 

1835 

39—40 

70,000 

6,796   18 

1,612  99 

204  00 

4.406  08 

1836 

47—48 

15,000 

10,502  28 

1,627  82 

226  00 

9,475  42 

1837 

40-41 

12,993  75 

809  37 

564  00 

9,564  28 

1833 

47-48 

20,000 

13,993  00 

1,496  84 

375  00 

14,043  81 

1839 

41—42 

18,044  76 

683  94 

332  00 

14,623  94 

1840 

39—40 

14,694  24 

619  73 

449  00 

16,730  44 

1841 

42-43 

15,599  58 

1,155  49 

405  00 

17.860  23 

1842 

43—44 

14,100  00 

908  62 

406  00 

11,027  33 

1843 

32—33 

8,000 

7,872  48 

332  00 

7,313  38 

1844 

34—35 

8,000  00 

381    11 

8,638  01 

1845 

34 

8,000  00 

692  00 

4,229  79 

1846 

44 

8,000  00 

145  00 

246,000 

159,870  14 

17,047  24 

4,268  00 

117,913  01 

State  Prison  at  Charlestown  — 

Paid  from  Prison  Treasury. 

Year 

Earnings  above 

Expenses  above 

Earnings  above 

Expenses  above 

Expenses. 

Earnings. 

Expenses. 

Earnings. 

1828 

12,167  07 

1839 

4,363  27 

1829 

7,599  70 

1840 

179  43 

1830 

6,897  02 

1841 

1,015  92 

1831 

477  31 

1842 

931  36 

1832 

4,192  32 

1843 

5,022  11 

1833 

6.995  57 

1344 

268  68 

1834 

7.646  23 

1845 

807  35 

1335 

7,000  00 

1846 

504  98 

1S30 

13,428  25 

1837 

2,773  64 

45,960  02 

36,637  18 

1838 

56  94 

1 

186 

The  larger  sums  in  the  first  column  relating  to  Pennsylvania 
were  probably  for  improvement  and  enlargement  of  buildings, 
and  additional  blocks  of  cells. 

The  salary  of  officers  in  the  new  Penitentiary  in  Philadelphia  is 
paid  from  the  State  Treasury,  irrespective  of  the  earnings  of  the 
prison  labor,  which  is  inadequate  to  pay  other  expenses.  The  sal- 
ary of  officers  at  Charlestown  is  paid  from  the  Prison  Treasury, 
out  of  the  earnings  of  prison  labor,  and  amounts  to  more  than 
$15,000  annually.  The  expense  of  conveying  convicts  is  paid 
from  the  State  Treasury  in  Pennsylvania,  and  from  the  Prison 
Treasury  in  Massachusetts ;  but  it  does  not  appear  from  the  Au- 
ditor-General's Report  in  Pennsylvania,  what  proportion  of  the 
above  items  belongs  to  the  new  Penitentiary  in  Philadelphia,  and 
wh&t  to  the  prison  at  Pittsburg,  nor  whether  they  all  belong  to  both. 
The  amount  charged  to  counties  for  the  support  of  their  con- 
victs are  items  given  by  the  Clerk  in  the  new  Penitentiary  in  Phil- 
adelphia, in  October,  1845. 

The  column  of  items  of  bounty  to  convicts  is  what  was  given 
to  convicts  connected  with  the  new  Penitentiary  in  Philadelphia  ; 
whether  at  the  time  of  their  discharge,  or  while  in  prison,  is  not 
stated  in  the  Auditor-General's  Report. 

The  earnings  above  expenses  at  Charlestown  are  proceeds  of 
prison  labor  above  expense  for  food,  clothing,  bedding,  salary  of 
officers,  bounty  to  convicts  —  consisting  of  a  new  suit  of  clothes 
on  discharge,  and  from  three  to  five  dollars  in  money  to  each,  ac- 
cording to  the  distance  he  has  to  travel,  his  behavior  in  prison,  and 
the  probable  use  he  will  make  of  what  is  given  him,  the  expense 
of  transporting  convicts  from  county  prisons,  and  small  incidental 
expenses — not  heavy  sums  for  erecting  new  buildings,  or  making 
extensive  repairs.  There  have  been  appropriations  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  Massachusetts,  of  several  thousand  dollars,  for  repairs  and 
improvements,  new  shops,  &;c.,  since  1828. 

In  the  right-hand  column  of  expenses  above  earnings,  the  salary 
of  officers  is  always  included,  which  is  the  heaviest  item  of  ex- 
pense in  the  prison  at  Charlestown,  but  not  more  than  it  should  be, 
where  the  prison  sustains  the  high  character  of  the  prison  at 
Charlestown,  and  is  to  so  great  an  extent  a  self-supporting  institu- 
tion. 

It  appears  from  the  above  table,  that  — 
There  were  paid  from   the  State  Treasury  in  Penn- 
sylvania to  prison  inspectors   and    others,  on  ac- 
count of  the   new   Penitentiary    in   Philadelphia, 
from  1828  to  1846,  inclusive         .         .         .         $246,000  00 
In  the  same  prison  for  salary  of  officers     .  159,870  14 

Amount  carried  forward  .         .         .        $405,870,  14 


187 


Amount  brought  forward             .         .         .  $405,870  14 
For  conveying  convicts     .....  17,047  24 
Bounty  to  convicts  connected  with  the  new  Peniten- 
tiary,   4,268  08 

Charged  to  counties  by  new  Penitentiary  for  support 

of  their  convicts         ......  117,913  31 


Total  in  nineteen  years  ....  f  545,098  77 

While,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  State  Prison  at 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  the  earnings  exceeded  the 
expenses  in  certain  years    .....        45,960  02 

And  in  other  years,  in  the  same  range  of  time,  the 

expenses  exceeded  the  earnings         .         .         .       36,637   18 

Leaving  a  balance  of  gain  to  the  prison  at  Charles- 
town,   after  paying   all    the   expenses   as    above 

specified   (not  including  improvements  and  new 

buildings)  of $9,522  84 


No.  II.     (p.  123.) 

[  This  Report  of  the  late  Dr.  Cleveland  is  inserted  here  as  con- 
taining views  founded  on  actual  observation,  which  may  suggest 
further  inquiries  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  opportunity  to 
make  them.] 

SIXTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF    THE    WARDEN    OF    THE    RHODE    ISLAND 
STATE    PRISON. 

To  the  Honorable  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island, 
October  Session,  A.  D.  1845. 

The  undersigned,  Warden  of  the  State  Prison,  and  Keeper  of  the 
County  Jail  in  the  county  of  Providence,  respectfully  submits  the 
following  statement  of  "  receipts  and  expenditures  "  of  said  estab- 
lishments, together  with  a  table  showing  the  "  circumstances  of 
each  convict  in  the  State  Prison,"  during  the  year  ending  Septem- 
ber 30,  1844,  as  by  law  required. 

He  would  further  state,  that  he  has  heretofore  circumscribed  his 
annual  report  within  the  requisitions  of  law  relating  to  the  annual 
accounts  and  statistics  of  the  Prison,  without,  however,  deeming 
himself  to  be  interdicted  from  the  course  pursued  by  the  officers  of 
similar  establishments  elsewhere,  in  presenting  to  the  inspectors,  or 
to  the  Assembly,  as  occasion  may  require,  the  results  of  their  ob- 
servations, with  a  view  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  system  which 


188 


they  are  called  upon  to  administer,  and  to  all  the  improvements 
which  time  and  experience  may  suggest.  The  undersigned  will 
therefore  take  this  opportunity  of  considering,  without  unnecessary 
prolixity,  several  subjects  connected  with  the  mode  of  imprison- 
ment here  adopted,  by  way  of  a  general  answer  to  questions  not 
unfrequently  asked,  and  entitled  to  a  reply  from  an  officer  whose 
position  and  duties  should  enable  him,  if  faithful  to  his  trust,  to 
give  the  information  required,  in  a  plain  and  satisfactory  manner. 

The  inquiry  is  frequently  made,  "  How  does  the  present  system 
succeed  in  comparison  with  that  which,  in  its  main  feature  of  labor 
in  strictly  solitary  confinement,  has  been  discontinued  .?  "  It  is 
well  known  that  this  Prison  was  constructed  and  established  upon 
that  plan,  and  that  the  principle  of  strict  seclusion  has  been  given 
up  for  reasons  deemed  imperative.  By  an  act  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  this  State,  passed  at  the  January  session,  1843,  the 
inspectors  of  the  State  Prison  were  vested  with  full  power  and 
authority  to  cause  the  prisoners  then  under  sentence,  or  who  might 
thereafter  be  sentenced  to  said  Prison,  "  to  be  enlarged  of  their 
confinement,  by  permitting  such  prisoners  to  perform  labor  in  the 
corridor  of  said  Prison ;  by  permitting  more  than  one  person  to 
remain  in  a  cell,  or  a  nurse  to  be  with  them  in  case  of  sickness  ; 
by  admitting  them  to  the  yard  of  the  Prison  in  the  daytime  ;  by 
admitting  such  communications  to  and  from  their  friends,  and 
among  themselves,  and  to  receive  such  books  and  articles  as  might 
be  necessary,  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  said  inspectors 
might  establish,  and  furnish  to  the  warden,  from  time  to  time,  con- 
sistent with  the  safe-keeping  of  said  prisoner."  The  first  of 
these  provisions  was  immediately  carried  into  effect,  by  causing  the 
prisoners  to  perform  their  labor  upon  a  platform  erected  in  the 
corridor  of  the  prison.  Subsequently,  a  convenient  workshop  has 
been  erected  for  the  purpose  ;  and  the  prisoners  are  assembled 
together  on  the  Sabbath  for  religious  exercises. 

Does  the  result  justify  the  change  ?  is  the  question.  The  under- 
signed is  impelled  by  several  reasons,  ni  addition  to  that  already 
suggested,  to  make  a  public  reply  to  it.  The  change  was,  from  a 
sense  of  duty,  by  him  respectfully  urged  upon  those  having  the 
authority  to  advise  its  adoption  ;  and  after  a  careful  observation, 
extending  through  a  period  of  more  than  four  years,  of  the  inju- 
rious and  alarming  efTects  of  solitary  imprisonment  upon  the  men- 
tal and  physical  condition  of  those  who  were  the  subjects  of  it. 
It  has  been  recently  suggested,  by  a  foreign  writer  of  distinction, 
that  the  system  of  solitary  imprisonment  in  this  state  failed  through 
the  mismanagement  of  those  charged  with  the  duty  of  carrying  it 
into  effect — an  imputation  which  shifts  the  radical  fault  of  the 
system  itself  upon  the  administration  of  it,  and  which  may  be 


189 


deemed  worthy  of  notice  and  refutation.  Further,  the  undersigned 
believes  it  to  be  due  to  the  cause  of  general  humanity,  that  all 
mistakes  of  the  penal  code,  so  soon  as  discovered,  should  be  so 
freely  and  distinctly  explained,  that  there  may  be  no  clanger  of 
their  repetition,  here  or  abroad  ;  and  that  the  amendment  of  them 
may  be  carried  to  the  account  of  "  public  justice,  which,  at  the 
present  day,  has  been  disrobed  of  the  purely  vindictive  character 
formerly  associated  with  it ;  lays  the  hand  of  reluctant  severity 
even  on  its  most  deserving  victims ;  avoids  all  unusual,  unneces- 
sary, and  cruel  inflictions ;  and  looks  not  only  to  the  security  and 
protection  of  society,  but  to  the  welfare  of  the  prisoner  ;  regard- 
ing, in  the  spirit  of  Christian  benevolence,  every  crime,  however 
great,  as  a  still  greater  misfortune,  both  to  the  offender  and  to  the 
state." 

In  these  remarks,  I  am  very  far  from  designing  to  reflect  on  the 
intention  and  object  of  any,  who  were  instrumental  in  devising  and 
establishing  this  Pi"ison  upon  the  plan  of  solitary  labor  ;  joining  as 
I  did  with  the  gi-eat  majority,  who  required  its  erection,  by  their 
votes.  The  plan  was  generally  approved,  and  widely  sanctioned, 
at  home  and  abroad.  The  "  old  jail  "  system,  of  herding  together, 
within  a  narrow  compass,  prisoners  of  eveiy  age  and  degree,  with 
its  attendant  consequences  of  moral  and  physical  pollution  and 
degradation,  was  condemned  by  all ;  and  public  opinion,  impelled 
by  the  prevailing  theory  of  the  day,  as  approbated  by  the  most 
enlightened  philanthropists  of  this  and  other  countries,  very  natu- 
rally oscillated  to  the  other  extreme,  and  demanded  the  experiment 
of  entire  seclusion  of  the  offender,  with  wholesome  labor,  and 
with  the  exertion  of  such  moral  means  as  should  afford  to  him  the 
hope  of  amendment  and  restoration,  (when  the  limits  of  the  law 
should  permit,)  as  a  purified  and  reclaimed  member  of  society. 

But  the  system,  thus  founded  in  the  most  honorable  and  humane 
intentions,  had  the  inherent  and  incurable  defect  of  being  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  laws  of  the  physical  nature  of  its  subjects,  which  no 
human  laws  can  change.  Under  the  old  plan  of  promiscuously 
herding  together  by  day  and  night,  the  prisoner  was  debased  and 
brutalized  ;  under  the  new,  he  is,  in  too  many  instances,  carried 
through  "  a  slow,  corroding  process,"  to  the  derangement,  or  de- 
struction, both  of  body  and  mind.  This  tendency  of  the  solitary 
system,  it  is  ti'ue,  was  predicted,  upon  natural  principles,  by  some 
eminent  opponents,  whose  benevolent  sagacity  forewarned,  though 
ineffectually,  the  friends  of  Prison  reform  of  the  result  which  they 
might  expect ;  but  experience  was  necessary  to  exhibit  it,  and  at 
an  expense  which  it  is  painful  to  contemplate. 

"  The  errors  of  philanthropy  are  among  the  most  injurious  and 

25 


190 


ditKcuIt  to  avert,  as  they  are  associated  with  good  motives,  and  sup- 
ported by  the  zeal  of  honest  men." 

It  is  to  one  of  these,  and  to  its  correction,  that  I  have,  for  the 
reasons  given,  now  solicited  a  portion  of  your  attention. 

Before  proceeding  to  particulars,  I  would  make  the  additional 
remark,  that,  though  the  number  of  prisoners  here  confined  has  been 
small  in  comparison  with  those  in  the  Prisons  in  some  other  and 
laro-er  States,  no  better  opportunity  was  ever  afforded  to  observe, 
with  care  and  in  detail,  all  the  effects  of  imprisonment  on  the  con- 
victs than  that  which  has  been  here  presented. 

Commencing  as  I  did  with  but  three  prisoners,  and  having  con- 
tinued for  six  years,  with  an  increase  of  about  ten  prisoners  in  each 
year,  I  have  been  enabled  to  become  particularly  acquainted  with 
each  individual  upon  his  admissioi?,  and  minutely  to  notice  every 
change  that  took  place  during  his  confinement. 

That  the  failure  of  the  system  of  labor  in  solitary  confinement,  in 
the  Rhode  Island  State  Prison,  was  not  fairly  attributable  to  the 
defect  of  its  administration,  appears  at  once  from  a  statement  of  the 
mode  and  regulations  of  imprisonment  here,  which  were  the  same 
as  those  adopted  in  older  establishments  elsewhere.  The  Prison 
was  erected  at  a  large  expense,  and  is  well  and  substantially  built, 
to  answer  the  purpose  designed.  The  cells,  being  intended  for 
constant  habitation  and  workshops,  were  made  large  on  that  ac- 
count, being,  in  the  lower  ranges,  eight  feet  broad,  fifteen  feet 
deep,  and  eight  feet  high.  From  the  second  range,  about  three 
feet  in  depth  are  taken  off  by  the  corridors  ;  but  from  the  pitch  of 
the  roof,  the  upper  cells  are  higher,  and  contain  about  the  same 
number  of  cubic  feet  as  the  others.  Each  cell  has  a  pine  floor  ; 
is  sufficiently  lighted  for  the  performance  of  any  mechanical  labor, 
with  two  squares  of  glass,  each  14  inches  by  5  ;  is  furnished  with 
an  abundant  supply  of  pure  water,  and  is  warmed  in  cold  weather 
with  hot  water  circulated  through  iron  pipes.  The  prisoner  is 
comfortably  clad,  and  sleeps  in  a  wooden  bunk,  on  a  pallet  and 
pillow  of  straw,  (unless  through  sickness  or  infirmity  a  feather  bed 
be  allowed,)  with  such  quantity  of  bedding  as  he  may  desire.  The 
labor  required  was,  as  now,  from  fifteen  minutes  after  sunrise  to 
one  hour  before  sunset,  with  two  intermissions  of  half  an  hour  each, 
for  meals,  from  the  20th  of  March  to  the  20th  of  September  ;  and 
during  the  rest  of  the  year,  from  fifteen  minutes  after  sunrise  to 
8  o'clock  in  the  evening,  with  the  same  intermissions ;  the  use  of 
a  light  for  one  hour  being  also  allowed  after  the  close  of  the  even- 
ing work. 

Suitable  medical  advice  end  attendance  were  also  furnished. 
Proper  persons  were  licensed  as  moral  and  religious  teachers,  who 
visited  the  prisoners,  principally  on  Sundays,  for  the  purpose  of  in- 


191 


struction  ;  and  preaching  on  Sundays  was  occasionally  had  in  the 
corridor,  the  doors  of  the  cells  being  opened  as  "fur  as  they  could 
be  without  permitting  the  prisoners  to  see  or  communicate  with 
each  other.  The  Bible,  books  of  prayer,  tracts,  and  several  other 
works  of  a  moral  nature,  were  also  furnished  to  them,  together 
with  writing  materials  on  Sundays.  Communication  in  any  form, 
with  any  person,  was,  as  now,  prohibited,  excepting  with  the  in- 
spectors, warden,  and  other  officers  of  the  Prison,  the  physician 
and  moral  instructors  ;  and  no  prisoner,  in  any  case,  was  permitted 
to  leave  his  cell,  except  once  in  three  months  for  bathing,  and  in 
case  of  sickness,  under  the  prescription  of  the  physician,  for  exer- 
cise, not  exceeding  fifteen  minutes  a  day,  in  the  corridor.  Corpo- 
ral punishment  was  excluded  by  law  from  the  Prison,  until  shortly 
before  the  solitary  system  was  mitigated  ;  and  the  only  penalties 
inflicted  were  the  deprivation  of  food,  water,  furniture,  and  bed- 
ding, for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  in  cases  of  refractory  conduct,  as 
the  occasion  might  require.  No  partiality  was  shown  among  the 
prisoners  from  regard  to  their  previous  position  in  the  world.  Then, 
as  now,  the  strict  rule  of  this  prison  was  to  treat  all,  in  all  respects, 
precisely  alike,  with  indispensable  exceptions  only  in  cases  of  sick- 
ness and  infirmity.  The  whole  system  was  carried  into  effect  un- 
der the  constant  supervision  and  frequent  visitation  of  a  board  of 
inspectors,  having  strong  confidence  in  its  superiority,  and  respon- 
sible to  the  legislative  body  for  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  Be- 
fore entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  the  warden  visited  sev- 
eral Prisons  in  other  States,  upon  the  plan  about  to  be  carried  into 
effect  here,  to  possess  himself  in  detail,  and  from  observation,  of 
the  best  modes  of  procedure,  in  order  to  an  exact  conformity  with 
the  most  approved  models.  Before  a  change  was  made  in  the 
original  plan  of  the  Prison,  by  order  of  the  legislature,  an  inquiry 
was  instituted,  in  that  body,  into  the  operation  and  result ;  and  no 
complaint  or  suggestion  was  made  that  the  original  plan  had  not 
been  properly  and  completely  carried  into  effect,  or  had  failed 
from  any  departure  or  innovation,  authorized  or  unauthorized,  on 
the  part  of  its  administrators.  In  addition  to  this,  on  inquiring  for 
the  model  of  solitary  imprisonment,  which  our  censor.  Dr.  Julius, 
of  Berlin,  holds  up  for  imitation,  and  for  non-conformity  with 
which  his  strictures  have  been  elicited,  it  is  found  to  be  the  "  New 
Model  Prison,"  situated  near  the  Caledonia  Asylum,  in  the  suburbs 
of  London,  which  was  put  in  operation  four  years  after  this,  and  in 
which  the  prisoners  are  permitted  to  assemble  for  religious  worship 
on  Sundays,  disguised  in  hoods,  and  sitting  in  separate  boxes,  and 
also  to  take  the  benefit  of  air,  sunshine,  and  exercise,  in  separate 
yards  provided  for  that  purpose,  with  "  shelters  or  covered  ways," 
that  they  may  not  even  lose  the  privilege  of  going  out  in  inclement 


192 


weather.  It  certainly  betrays  a  lapse  of  memory,  or  a  confusion 
of  ideas,  in  our  learned  friend  and  visitor,  to  discover  an  identity  in 
the  American  system  of  close  confinement,  as  anywhere  practised, 
with  the  very  distinct  system  of  the  London  Prison  referred  to, 
which  appears  to  go  even  beyond  the  Auburn  system,  in  allowing 
exercise  and  diversion  out  of  doors. 

I  submit,  therefore,  to  your  honorable  body,  upon  this  brief  and 
incontrovertible  statement  of  facts,  that  the  punishment  of  solitary 
imprisonment  was  administered  here  in  its  ordinary  and  most  ap- 
proved mode,  and  proceed  to  exhibit  its  consequences,  and  what  I 
deem  to  be  their  physiological  causes. 

Among  the  small  number  of  prisoners  at  the  onset,  the  bad  effects 
of  solitary  imprisonment  upon  the  mind  were  very  apparent,  not 
leading  me,  however,  to  consider  them  as  arising  from  the  peculiar 
confinement  and  discipline  to  which  they  were  subjected.  Like 
others,  I  attributed  these  effects  to  the  prevalence  of  bad  practices, 
according  to  a  common  notion  among  the  medical  attendants  of 
similar  establishments.  In  my  capacity  of  keeper  of  the  County 
Jail,  beside  debtors,  persons  accused  and  convicted,  and  occasion- 
ally madmen,  dangerous  to  go  at  large,  I  had  frequently  under  my 
observation,  on  commitment  by  the  magistrates  of  the  city  of  Provi- 
dence, vagrants  of  the  most  wretched  description,  who  were  seized 
with  that  species  of  derangement  called  delirium  tremens^  arising 
from  the  sudden  deprivation  of  an  accustomed  excessive  stimulus 
of  the  brain  by  ardent  spirit.  In  observing  these  cases,  I  was  for- 
cibly struck  with  the  similarity  of  the  symptoms  in  those  who  had 
become  deranged  in  the  State  Prison^  after  a  confinement  of  from 
six  to  eighteen  months  in  solitude,  to  those  manifested  in  the  Jail 
in  patients  who  became  such  after  a  confinement  of  but  a  few 
days,  and  undoubtedly  from  the  abstraction  of  their  accustomed 
excitement  by  drink.  The  appearance  of  similar  effects,  arising 
from  apparently  dissimilar  causes,  led  me  to  an  investigation  of  the 
subject,  for  the  purpose,  if  possible,  of  ascertaining  if  such  were 
the  fact.  From  the  uniformity  of  the  symptoms  of  derangement, 
which  made  their  appearance  in  a  large  number  of  the  convicts  in 
the  State  Prison,  and  were  strongly  developed  in  one  sixth  part  of 
all  who  were  there  committed  during  a  term  of  about  four  years, 
and  all  placed  in  the  same  condition,  and  under  the  same  disci- 
pline, I  was  satisfied  that  all  were  affected  by  one  and  the  same 
cause  ;  and  being  forcibly  impressed  with  the  identity  of  their  de- 
rangement with  that  exhibited  m  the  Jail,  arising  from  the  abstrac- 
tion of  alcoholic  stimulus,  I  at  length  was  satisfied  that  the  same 
general  explanation  extended  to  all  the  cases,  though  in  one  class 
of  them  no  ardent  spirit  had  ever  been  used  to  excess  ;  or,  if  so 
used,   had    been   entirely  abstained    from    from   six   to  eighteen 


19; 


months.  In  both  classes  of  cases,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion, 
that  the  derangement  was  produced  by  the  abstraction  of  an  accus- 
tomed stimulus  to  the  brain,  either  natural,  and  requisite  to  a 
healthy  action,  or  unnatural,  and  adapted  to  the  supply  of  a  morbid 
and  injurious  appetite,  and  thus  necessary,  by  a  bad  habit,  to  the 
ordinary  mental  and  physical  action  of  the  system.  Persons  who 
have  never  been  deprived  even  of  a  small  portion  of  what  may  be 
called  their  natural  stivmhis,  for  any  considerable  length  of  time, 
are  little  aware  of  its  salutary  and  indispensable  influence.  Every 
moment  of  our  lives  brings  us  under  its  action,  through  the  external 
senses,  in  ten  thousand  various  forms.  The  succession  of  day  and 
night,  the  changing  seasons  through  which  we  are  constantly 
passing,  are  all  in  continual  action  upon  the  springs  of  life.  The 
momentary  and  ever-changing  objects  which  present  themselves  to 
the  eye,  the  continual  and  rapid  variety  of  sounds  which  fall  upon 
the  ear,  and,  in  short,  the  perpetual  succession  of  phenomena, 
which  address  themselves  to  the  senses,  are  all,  in  a  state  of  per- 
sonal liberty,  and  except  in  the  periodical  intermissions  of  sleep, 
constantly  operating  upon  the  brain,  and  supplying  it  with  that 
normal  stimulus  so  necessary  to  the  production  of  moral,  physical, 
and  intellectual  health.  In  fact,  all  the  external  senses  are  but  so 
many  avenues,  through  which  new  impulses  to  the  system  are  con- 
tinually flowing  ;  all  which,  including  also  social  intercourse,  com- 
bine in  their  operations,  and  give  a  perpetual  impulse  to  the  human 
system.  Now,  suddenly  abstract  from  a  man  these  influences,  to 
which  he  has  been  so  long  accustomed  ;  shut  him  up,  with  but 
scanty  resources  of  his  own  to  keep  the  powers  of  his  mind  in 
action,  in  a  solitary  cell,  where  he  must  pass  the  same  unvarying 
round,  from  week  to  week,  with  hope  depressed,  with  no  subjects 
for  reflection  but  those  which  give  him  pain  to  review,  in  the  scenes 
of  his  former  life  ;  after  a  few  days,  with  no  new  impressions  made 
upon  his  senses,  where  even  the  sound  of  his  own  hammer  is  lost 
upon  his  ear,  and  one  unvarying  sameness  relaxes  the  attention 
and  concentration  of  his  mind,  and  it  will  not  be  thought  strange, 
that,  through  the  consequent  debility  and  irritability  of  its  organ, 
the  mind  should  wander  and  become  impaired  ;  in  short,  that  the 
prisoner  should  have  the  "  horrors,"  and  that  too  from  the  same 
cause  that  produces  the  disease  in  the  man  whose  system  has  be- 
come accustomed  to  other  and  greater  stimulus  than  his,  and  has 
had  that  unnatural  but  habitual  stimulus  suddenly  withdrawn.  Is 
not  the  brain,  as  a  physical  organ,  subject  to  the  same  laws  that 
govern  all  other  parts  of  the  system  }  and  may  it  not  become  para- 
lyzed or  deranged  for  want  of  action,  as  well  as  from  exhaustion  of 
excitability  by  over-action  } 

Perhaps  it  would  be  advisable  to  draw  the   parallel  more  speci- 


194 


fically  between  the  two  conditions  of  derangement  to  which  I  have 
alluded.  If  a  man  have  safely  passed  through  an  attack  of  delirium 
tremens,  arising  from  the  abstraction  of  his  accustomed  alcoholic 
stimulus,  he  will  never  be  liable  to  another  attack  so  long  as  he 
abstains  from  that  stimulus.  The  same  is  true,  so  far  as  my  obser- 
vation extends,  of  the  prisoner  who  has  safely  passed  through  the 
same  ordeal  in  the  abstraction  of  his  accustomed  stimulus  to  the 
senses,  such  as  has  been  described  ;  and  he  will  spend  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days,  so  long  as  he  shall  remain  in  prison  without 
any  interval  of  liberty,  though  for  years  in  solitude,  and  never  be 
subject  to  a  like  attack.  But  the  consequences  may  be  irreparable, 
and  he  may  be  very  much  reduced  in  the  scale  of  being  ;  without 
energy  or  capacity,  for  action,  and  unfit  to  be  restored  to  society  ; 
his  animal  propensities  invariably  gaining  the  ascendancy  over  his 
moral  and  intellectual  faculties,  inasmuch  as  the  ordinary  stimulus 
necessary  for  the  former  has  not  been  abstracted  to  so  great  an 
extent. 

Again,  let  the  long  accustomed  stimulus  of  alcohol  be  gradually 
withdrawn  from  those,  who,  in  consequence  of  a  depraved  condi- 
tion of  the  body,  would  otherwise  be  the  subjects  of  delirium,  yet 
such  is  the  flexibility  of  the  human  system,  such  its  power,  gradually, 
within  certain  limits,  to  accommodate  itself  to  changes  of  condition 
without  sustaining  material  injury,  that  it  may  be  done  with  impu- 
nity. The  same  is  true,  and  has  been  repeatedly  exemplified  under 
my  observation,  in  regard  to  the  effects  produced  by  the  abstraction 
of  the  natural  stimulus  of  the  brain  in  solitary  imprisonment;  and, 
without  a  single  exception,  those  who  have  suffered  the  greatest 
deterioration  from  solitude,  are  men  who  possessed  the  smallest 
portion  of  intellect,  who  depended  almost  wholly  upon  external 
influences  to  keep  their  brain  in  action,  and  who  had  their  accus- 
tomed and  necessary  resources  suddenly  and  almost  entirely  ab- 
stracted. But  those  who  are  blessed  with  better  intellects,  and 
who  are  consequently  supplied  with  a  stock  of  internal  resources, 
upon  which  to  sustain  themselves,  have  been  enabled  gradually  to 
let  themselves  down,  and  have  become  accommodated  to  their  new 
and  inferior  conditon,  without,  or  with  less  perceptible  injury. 

Again,  when  the  accustomed  excessive  use  of  ardent  spirits  is 
suddenly  suspended,  and  symptoms  of  delirium  tremens  ensue, 
nothing  is  better  adapted  to  relieve  the  patient  than  the  adminstra- 
tion  of  his  usual  stimulus.  The  same  is  true  in  relation  to  that  de- 
rangement produced  by  solitary  imprisonment,  in  support  of  which, 
and  more  clearly  still  to  show  the  identity  of  the  two  conditions  of 
derangement  under  consideration,  I  shall  now  adduce  a  few  cases 
of  the  latter,  assuming  that  those  of  the  former  class,  as  well  as  the 
treatment  of  them,  are  too  well  known  to  require  a  description  at 
this  time. 


195 


Prisoner  No.  6,  white,  aged  28  years,  was  sentenced  to  separate 
imprisonment  for  four  years.  His  health  was  somewhat  impaired  ; 
but  he  was  of  temperate  habits,  possessed  of  ordinary  intellect,  but 
uncultivated,  with  large  perceptive  faculties,  a  nervous-sanguine 
temperament,  and  a  good  flow  of  spirits.  He  had  passed  a  roving 
life,  without  regular  employment.  He  showed  symptoms  of  de- 
rangement about  the  twelfth  month  of  his  confinement.  The 
principal  feature  of  his  derangement  was  a  constant  dread  and  fear 
of  some  imaginary  danger.  In  this  state  of  mind  he  attempted  to 
commit  suicide,  to  avoid  being  flogged  to  death,  which  he  was  sure 
would  soon  be  done,  though  at  that  time  corporal  punishment  was 
not  allowed  in  the  Prison.  He  was  continued  in  solitude  during 
the  remainder  of  his  sentence,  and  was  discharged  from  Prison 
almost  an  idiot.  As  no  one  knew  his  name  or  home,  and  he  was 
not  in  a  suitable  condition  to  be  at  large,  he  was  placed  in  the 
County  Jail  for  safe  keeping.  At  this  time,  every  indication  in  his 
appearance  was,  that  he  would  never  again  be  restored  in  the 
slightest  degree.  Being  harmless,  he  was  placed  in  one  of  the 
rooms  appropriated  to  debtors,  where,  to  my  surprise, -after  associ- 
ating with  them  for  several  months,  he  seemed  to  regain  some 
glimpses  of  memory,  which  apparently  had  been  lost  for  nearly 
three  years.  He  is  now  in  the  Lunatic  As^-lum  at  Concord,  New 
Hampshire,  in  the  hope  of  the  restoration  of  his  faculties  ;  but  with 
what  success,  time  has  not  disclosed. 

A  similar  condition  of  imbecility,  I  think,  would  often  be  conse- 
quent upon  the  excessive  use,  or  the  sudden  abstraction,  of  ardent 
spirits,  were  it  not  for  the  fact,  that,  in  extreme  cases,  the  physical 
powers  sink  with  the  intellectual,  and  death  overtakes  the  victim. 
But,  according  to  my  observations,  where  a  long  and  excessive  use 
of  ardent  spirit  has  been  indulged  in,  although  the  animal  functions 
may  survive  the  shock  of  its  abstraction,  the  moral  and  intellectual 
faculties  never  regain  their  original  integrity.  The  same  remark 
will,  in  my  judgment,  apply  with  equal  truth  to  the  individual  whose 
system  has  received  any  considerable  or  long-continued  derange- 
ment by  the  abstraction  of  his  natural  and  accustomed  stimulus  in 
solitary  confinement. 

Prisoner  No.  8,  white,  aged  40  years,  was  sentenced  for  five 
years  ;  a  man  of  temperate  habits  and  good  health,  of  inferior 
intellect,  with  strong  passions,  and  a  considerable  share  of  cunning. 
His  temperament  was  bilious-sanguine,  and  very  much  disposed  to 
mirthfulness.  He  could  neither  read  nor  write,  and  was  very 
ignorant,  except  of  the  expedients  to  gain  a  dishonest  livelihood : 
his  occupation  irregular.     He  became   deranged  about  the  tenth 


196 


month  of  his  confinement.  Symptoms  of  delirium  tremens  were 
in  his  case  more  completely  developed  than  in  the  preceding.  I 
have  found  him  in  the  greatest  state  of  terror  and  alarm,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  seeing  some  one  at  his  window,  with  a  long  pike,  for 
the  purpose  of  killing  him.  Under  this  impression,  I  have  seen 
him  crouched  in  some  corner  of  his  cell,  where  he  could  not  be 
reached  from  the  window,  his  whole  frame  in  a  state  of  tremor 
and  agitation,  indicating  the  greatest  fear.  Under  this  fear  and 
excitement,  he  also  attempted  suicide.  This  state  of  delusion 
continued  about  six  months,  when  he  gradually  recovered  his  com- 
posure, with  the  mental  faculties  much  reduced.  He  remained 
four  years  in  solitary  confinement,  at  which  time  the  system  was 
abolished.  But  so  great  was  his  aversion  to  leaving  his  cell  for 
labor ;  that  he  was  allowed  to  continue  there  during  the  remainder 
of  his  time. 

Prisoner  No.  20,  white,  aged  32,  was  sentenced  for  twenty 
months.  His  constitution  was  impaired  by  intemperate  habits.  His 
mental  faculties  were  feeble  and  uncultivated  ;  his  occupation  that 
of  a  sailor ;  no  marked  indication  of  temperament,  and  an  even 
but  moderate  flow  of  spirits.  He  exhibited  symptoms  of  derange- 
ment about  the  twelfth  month  of  confinement,  which  increased  until 
most  of  the  symptoms  of  delirium  tremens  were  fully  developed, 
such  as  tremor  of  the  hands,  tongue,  and  voice,  profuse  perspira- 
tion, a  delusion  of  the  senses,  and  great  fear  of  personal  injury  from 
false  causes,  leading  him  to  arm  himself  with  whatever  was  in  his 
possession,  and  give  battle  to  his  imaginary  enemy  with  the  greatest 
desperation.  He  continued  in  this  situation  to  the  expiration  of  his 
sentence,  having  once  attempted  suicide.  After  being  discharged, 
his  recovery  was  rapid,  and  in  a  few  weeks  he  was  apparently 
restored  to  a  sound  state  of  mind. 

Prisoner  No.  40,  white,  aged  28  years,  of  strong  constitution,  good 
health,  and  of  temperate  habits,  was  sentenced  for  two  years.  His 
natural  abilities  were  fair ;  he  was  barely  able  to  read,  but  had 
never  learned  to  write.  His  temperament  was  bilious-sanguine, 
and  of  an  ordinary  cheerful  disposition.  He  showed  symptoms  of 
derangement,  with  a  tendency  to  commit  suicide,  about  the  tenth 
month  of  confinement,  soon  exhibiting  several  well-marked  symptoms 
of  delirium  tremens.  When  under  great  apparent  fear  and  excite- 
ment, he  related  to  me  a  plot  he  had  heard  formed  in  the  Prison- 
yard  for  taking  his  life  ;  that  he  had  also  seen  one  of  the  conspira- 
tors at  his  window,  with  a  gun,  for  the  purpose  of  shooting  him, 
and  that  he  had  saved  his  life  by  lying  on  the  floor  immediately 
under  the  window,  where  the  gun  could  not  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  him  ;  afterwards,  that  they  resorted  to  suffocation,  by  burning 
sulphur  at  his  ventilator,  and  that  he  barely  saved  his   life  by 


197 


applying  his  face  to  the  window,  where  he  could  breathe  the  external 
air.  At  this  time,  the  law  relating  to  the  Prison  had  been  so  far 
altered  as  to  allow  two  or  more  prisoners  to  remain  in  a  cell. 
Accordingly,  another  prisoner  was  allowed  to  be  with  him,  which 
alone  appeared  to  be  the  cause  of  his  recovery,  after  a  i^ew  weeks, 
when,  at  his  own  request,  he  was  left  alone  in  his  cell,  where  he  in 
a  short  time  relapsed  and  exhibited  all  his  former  symptoms. 
The  company  of  a  convict  was  again  allowed  him,  as  before  ;  and 
in  about  four  weeks  he  was  restored,  without  afterwards  relapsing 
into  his  former  condition,  though  his  companion  was  removed,  as 
before. 

Of  the  forty  prisoners  committed  while  the  strictly  solitary  sys- 
tem was  in  operation,  ten,  or  one  fourth  of  the  whole  number,  (two 
of  whom  were  blacks,)  manifested  decided  symptoms  of  derange- 
ment ;  seven  so  much  so,  as  to  unfit  them  for  labor  for  a  longer 
or  shorter  period,  and  five  were  discharged  insane,  two  of  whom 
recovered,  and  three  now  remain  unrestored  to  a  sound  state  of  mind. 

Of  the  nineteen  committed  since  the  system  was  abandoned, 
three  only,  —  two  whites  and  a  black ,  —  have  shown  symptoms  of 
derangement.  One  of  them  is  No.  20,  whose  case  has  been  de- 
scribed, who  was  recommitted  in  about  twelve  months  after  his  dis- 
charge, and  who  relapsed  into  his  former  condition  about  the  fourth 
month  of  confinement.  One  other,  a  black,  was  so  much  deranged 
as  to  disqualify  him  for  labor,  his  health  at  the  same  time  being  much 
impaired,  though  good  when  committed.  He  died  of  dropsy  of  the 
chest,  in  the  tenth  month  of  his  imprisonment,  and  in  the  sixth 
week  of  his  being  so  far  deranged  as  to  unfit  him  for  labor.  The 
third  is  in  tolerably  good  health,  and  is  not  disqualified  for  work, 
though  laboring  under  constant  anxiety,  depicted  in  his  counte- 
nance, from  the  hallucination  that  he  is  visited  by  tempters,  whis- 
pering in  his  ear  the  suggestion  to  commit  some  criminal  act.  He 
showed  symptoms  of  derangement  about  the  sixth  month  of  con- 
finement. 

I  would  here  remark,  from  all  the  observations  that  I  have  been 
able  to  make,  that  but  few  men,  and  those  strongly  constituted,  can 
be  subjected  to  the  discipline  of  solitary  imprisonment,  as  it  was 
here  established,  without  becoming,  sooner  or  later,  through  its  de- 
pressing effects,  more  or  less  debilitated  in  some  of  their  physical 
and  mental  operations  ;  and  I  have  not  the  least  doubt,  that  under 
this,  as  well  as  under  other  systems  of  imprisonment,  hundreds 
of  convicts  have  been  most  inhumanly  punished,  for  the  innocent 
exhibition  of  some  eccentricities  of  conduct  during  the  trying  pe- 
riod of  their  imprisonment,  when,  upon  every  principle  of  hu- 
manity, they  should  have  been  treated  with  more  than  ordinary 
kindness  and  compassion.     Effects  somewhat  similar  to  the  above 

26 


198 


are  often,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  produced  by  the  stagnation 
of  the  active  powers,  after  retirement  from  a  long  and  energetic 
business  life.  The  individual  having  secured  a  competency  for  the 
body,  without  having  laid  up  any  internal  resources,  finds  himself 
sinking  under  this  new  state  of  mental  inertia.  Upon  the  with- 
drawal of  the  accustomed  stimulus  of  business,  nothing  is  left  to 
keep  up  the  healthy  action  of  the  brain,  and  melancholy,  and 
oftentimes  suicide,  is  the  result,  and  from  a  cause  similar  to  that 
which  operates  in  the  production  of  delirium  tremens. 

Similar  effects  are  not  produced  upon  the  mind  upon  retiring 
from  literary  labors  and  pursuits;  and  the  reason  is  evident.  The 
literary  man  carries  with  him,  in  his  retirement,  a  store  of  food 
for  thought  and  reflection ;  and  although  his  activity  may  be  di- 
minished, there  yet  remains  sufficient  stimulus  to  support  the  brain 
under  its  somewhat  altered  circumstances,  until  it  becomes  adapted 
to  them.  The  minds  of  literary  men,  however,  sometimes  be- 
come deranged  under  circumstances  analogous  to  that  form  of  de- 
lirium tremens  arising  directly  from  the  excessive  stimulus  of  ardent 
spirits.  In  both  cases,  the  excitability  of  the  brain,  from  excessive 
action,  becomes  exhausted  ;  and  in  both  cases,  the  worst  form  of 
paralysis  of  that  organ  is  the  consequence.  In  some  diseases,  also, 
especially  in  the  malignant  form  of  typhus  fever,  where  there  is  a 
sudden  loss  of  the  vital  powers,  a  species  of  delirium  ensues,  very 
much  resembling  delirium  tremens,  and  from  which  the  patient  is 
restored  only  by  the  use  of  the  most  powerful  stimulants. 

Upon  a  review  of  facts  like  those  I  have  now  detailed,  it  is  im- 
possible for  me  to  hesitate  in  condemning  the  penal  system  of  soli- 
tary confinement.  Were  it  preferable  in  an  economical  point  of 
view,  —  and  the  case  is  widely  the  reverse, —  we  could  not  hesi- 
tate in  deciding  the  question  between  economy  and  humanity. 

"  Political  society  has  the  undoubted  right  to  vindicate  its  laws, 
by  assigning  to  the  violation  of  them  such  penalties  as  the  public 
safety  and  welfare  may  require,  and  such  as  do  not  conflict  with 
the  paramount  injunctions  of  the  divine  Lawgiver."  "  It  is,  as  I 
believe,  the  right  of  society  to  take  the  life  of  an  offender,  if  neces- 
sary ;  but  not  to  take  his  mind,  or  to  subject  him  to  any  process  of  in- 
fliction of  which  mental  derangement  shall  be  an  ordinary,  and  not 
an  unusual  and  unexpected  result.  There  is  no  pretence  of  neces- 
sity for  any  system  that  operates  in  this  w^ay.  There  are  others 
more  safe,  practicable  and  beneficial."  "  The  legitimate  objects 
for  which  judicial  punishment  are  inflicted  by  the  political  state, 
are  to  administer  retributive  justice  to  the  offender,  to  secure  so- 
ciety against  a  repethion  of  his  offence,  and  to  deter  others  from 
imitating  his  example.  The  first  object  is  accomplished  by  death, 
imprisonment,  or  other  infliction  upon  the  offender  ;  the  second,  by 


199 


the  same  means,  and,  still  better,  by  his  reformation  ;  and  both  the 
second  and  the  last,  by  exhibiting  a  sufficient  counterbalance  of 
evil  to  weigh  down  any  amount  of  pleasure  or  gain  which  may 
tempt  him  or  others  to  do  the  like.  And  the  amount  of  pain 
which  society  can  inflict,  is  that  which  is  strictly  necessary  in  its 
own  defence.  All  beyond  this  partakes  of  the  crime  committed, 
rather  than  of  the  justice  which  seeks  to  punish  it ;  is  '  cruel 
and  unusual,'  and  is  at  war  with  the  sound  principles  of  govern- 
ment and  the  dictates  of  humanity." 

The  improved  physiology  of  the  present  day,  without  denying 
the  possibility  of  an  insane  mind,  according  to  the  popular  form  of 
speech,  recognizes  no  such  phenomena,  in  the  present  state  of  ex- 
istence, without  a  proximate  bodily  cause  ;  though  the  remote 
causes  may  be  bodily  or  mental,  or  both.  And  as  the  causes  of 
derangement  in  solitary  confinement,  both  proximate  and  remote, 
appear  so  uniformly  to  be  of  a  physical  nature,  and  so  fully  ade- 
quate to  the  effects  produced,  I  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to 
dwell  on  any  other  than  that  which  it  has  been  my  endeavor  to  ex- 
hibit, and  which,  if  it  have  received  any  attention  from  others,  has 
not  been  estimated  as  its  importance  requires. 

Without  dwelling  on  the  greater  expensiveness  of  the  solitary 
plan,  its  effects  on  general  health,  its  failure  to  deter  from  crime, 
(according  to  the  promise  held  out,)  and  various  other  objections,  I 
would  remark,  that  the  advantage  claimed  for  it,  of  greater  calm- 
ness of  demeanor  and  easier  submission  to  the  rules  of  the  plaec, 
on  the  part  of  the  solitary  prisoner,  has  not  been  realized  here. 
On  the  contrary,  solitude  has  been  found  to  produce  restless  irrita- 
bility, and  a  peevishness  of  disposition,  impatient  of  the  unnatural 
restraint  imposed  on  the  reluctant  body  and  mind,  difficult  to  be 
dealt  with ;  while,  in  the  performance  of  social  labor,  in  silence, 
the  men  have  been  better  subject  to  control,  and  have  required  less 
frequent  exertions  of  authority  than  before.  When  shut  up  in  the 
cells,  they  exercised,  under  the  cravings  of  the  social  instinct,  which 
walls  and  chains  cannot  repress,  every  contrivance  that  ingenuity 
could  suggest,  by  means  of  the  window,  and  the  pipes  passing 
through  the  cells,  to  hold  some  communication  with  each  other  ; 
and  they  were  more  frequently  successful  than  would  have  been 
supposed  possible.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  when  the  strict  se- 
clusion of  the  cell  was  done  away,  and  the  senses  of  the  prisoners 
were  once  more  opened  to  a  portion  of  their  accustomed  impres- 
sions, and  the  social  nature  had  been  partially  relieved,  by  permit- 
ting company  without  conversation,  a  very  marked  change  came 
over  the  prisoners,  and  they  manifested  most  clearly  to  the  observer, 
by  their  great  cheerfulness,  alacrity  in  labor,  and  prompter  com- 
pliance with  orders,  that  their  condition  was  much  improved,  and 
that  they  were  sensible  of  it. 


200 


In  the  year  preceding  the  discontinuance  of  solitary  imprison- 
ment, there  was  an  average  loss  from  sickness  of  twenty-five  per 
cent,  upon  the  labor  of  the  convicts.  During  the  past  year,  under 
the  system  of  social  labor,  the  loss,  from  the  same  cause,  has  been 
about  six  per  cent.  The  necessity  and  amount  of  punishments  for 
disobedience  and  violations  of  rules  have  diminished  in  about  the 
same  proportion.  It  should  be  added,  however,  that  corporal  pun- 
ishment has  been  introduced  under  the  new  system,  and  no  doubt 
has  operated  to  deter  from  offences,  although  it  has  been  adminis- 
tered to  two  prisoners  only  in  extreme  cases. 

Another  supposed  advantage  of  the  solitary  plan  —  that  of  afford- 
ing secrecy  and  seclusion  to  the  prisoner,  so  that  he  may  go  forth 
into  the  world  again  without  being  recognized,  and  perhaps  threat- 
ened or  tempted  by  his  associates —  is,  in  practice,  wholly  illusory. 
For  no  man  passes  into  Prison  without  an  open  trial,  and  the 
knowledge  of  friends  and  enemies  ;  and  no  inan  can  expect  to  pass 
out  again  without  being  remembered.  A  hope  of  concealing  the 
imprisonment,  as  the  basis  of  reformation  and  a  new  character,  is 
almost  sure  to  be  defeated  ;  and  I  believe  that  "  experience  fully 
warrants  the  assertion,  that  the  prospect  of  thorough  and  lasting 
reform  is  the  best  where  the  offence  is  atoned  for  on  the  spot 
where  it  was  committed,  and  before  its  witnesses,  by  honest  exer- 
tions, and  a  life  of  integrity." 

Without  seeking  a  controversy  with  the  officers  of  other  Prisons, 
I  feel,  nevertheless,  free  to  say,  after  an  attentive  examination  of 
their  reports,  setting  forth  the  great  amount  of  derangement  which 
prevails  under  the  system  of  strict  solitude,  and  more  especially 
the  reports  of  the  Eastern  Penitentiary,  at  Philadelphia,  which  was 
taken  as  our  model,  that,  in  my  opinion,  the  main,  prevailing  cause 
of  derangement  in  those  prisons  has  been  overlooked ;  and  that 
the  cases  as  described  have  been  erroneously  attributed  to  the 
prevalent  practice  of  masturbation. 

It  is  at  the  same  time  asserted,  that  the  very  worst  and  most 
hopeless  form  of  derangement,  arising  from  this  source,  viz.  de- 
mentia, the  condition  of  being  demented,  and  prostrated  in  body 
and  mind,  is  frequently  curable,  and  the  cases  are  reported.  We 
read  also  of  acute  dementia,  {acute  depression,  or  decay  of  the 
faculties  !  —  a  phrase  which  sounds  somewhat  strangely  to  an  old- 
fashioned  practitioner,)  of  "  erotic  enervation,"  of  hypochondria, 
hallucination,  and  "  deviltry,''''  among  the  list  of  causes  ;  from  the 
description  of  which,  I  believe  them  to  amount,  in  the  whole,  (ex- 
cepting the  last,  which  is  not  precisely  intelligible  in  this  region,) 
to  enervation  of  the  brain,  the  organ  of  the  mind,  through  the  ab- 
straction of  the  greater  portion  of  its  appropriate  and  external 
stimulus.     At  all  events,  I  shall  be  satisfied  if  I  have  said  any- 


201 


thing  to  recall  attention  to  this  important  subject,  and  to  the  closer 
investigation  of  the  phenomena.  If  I  am  in  error  in  this  matter,  I 
shall  be  more  happy  to  be  corrected  than  to  detect  the  errors  of 
others.  If  I  am  right,  the  boasted  system  of  solitude  may  lose 
something  of  popularity,  where  it  is  still  retained,  and  humanity 
will  be  the  gainer. 

While  it  will  be  seen  from  the  statistics  of  this  Prison,  before  pre- 
sented, that  the  proportion  of  deranged  has  fallen  from  twenty- 
five  per  cent.,  under  the  solitary  system,  to  ten  per  cent,  of  new 
cases,  under  the  present,  of  solitude  by  night,  with  labor  in  com- 
pany by  day,  there  is  room  for  improvement,  until  this  opprobrium 
shall,  if  possible,  be  removed,  by  reducing  this  deplorable  evil  to 
its  smallest  possible  compass.  This,  of  course,  will  be  an  object 
of  solicitude  with  all  concerned  in  the  management  of  the  Prison. 

In  attending  to  the  habits  and  dispositions  of  prisoners,  it  has 
been  a  question  with  me  how  far  they  would  be  benefited  by  inter- 
course or  communication  with  friends  on  the  outside.  In  some 
Prisons,  occasional  visits  are  allowed  ;  in  others  open  letters  are 
permitted  to  pass  to  and  fro ;  and  in  some,  temperance  newspa- 
pers are  circulated.  In  this  Prison,  a  stricter  rule  prevails,  and 
no  visitors,  except  those  authorized  by  law,  and  except  in  extreme 
cases  of  sickness  or  otherwise,  are  permitted  to  see  and  converse 
with  the  prisoners.  Without  intending  to  interfere  in  this  or  other 
matters  resting  in  the  province  of  the  inspectors,  I  may  be  allowed 
to  say,  that  while  there  are  some  who  may  be  almost  said  to  be 
fortunate  in  being  rescued  from  the  base  and  contaminating  asso- 
ciations with  which  they  have  been  mixed  up,  and  brought  to  this 
place,  the  case  is  different  with  others  who  have  virtuous,  sym- 
pathizing friends ;  and  there  is  a  chord  in  the  heart  of  the  most 
erring,  which  can  be  touched  by  the  hand  of  kindness,  with  an 
unfailing  response.  In  looking  over  the  writing-books  which  are  fur- 
nished to  the  prisoners  on  Sundays,  I  have  been  occasionally  struck 
with  the  home  feeling  manifested,  and  the  yearning  of  prisoners 
after  the  better  things  that  have  been  lost  in  the  pursuits  for  which 
they  had  incurred  the  penalty  of  the  laws. 

It  is  worthy  to  be  considered  whether  a  proper  communication 
from  abroad  of  the  good  influences  of  friends  may  not  sometimes 
become  an  important  element  in  the  recovery  of  prisoners  to  a 
purpose  of  amendment,  from  which  they  will  not  so  easily  be 
swayed  by  their  former  temptations,  on  returning  to  the  world. 

Among  the  great  variety  of  topics  which  press  upon  my  atten- 
tion, there  are  two  popular  errors  relating  to  imprisonment,  upon 
which  I  will  offer  a  few  remarks.  One  is,  that  the  greater  the 
severity  practised  toward  a  prisoner,  the  greater  his  punishment. 
It  is  very  common,  when  improvements  in  Prisons  are  suggested. 


202 


for  the  greater  comfort  of  the  inmates,  to  hear  the  observation,  that 
they  ought  to  suffer,  and  the  more  the  better  ;  that  the  way  of  the 
transgressor  is  hard  ;  and  that  the  only  way  to  benefit  him  is  to 
make°a  deep  and  lasting  impression  of  wholesome  severity  upon 
body  and  mind.  It  is  true  that  pain  is  the  portion  of  the  prisoner 
for  his  offences,  and  that  he  must  suffer,  and  deeply  suffer,  to  be 
benefited.  But  there  is  a  limit  which  cannot  be  passed  without 
defeating  the  ends  of  the  law,  in  retribution,  public  security,  and 
personal  reformation,  and  perverting  justice  into  cruelty  without 
an  object. 

Says  an  American  writer,  "  It  ought  to  be  impressed  on  law- 
givers, and  all  who  are  called  upon  to  administer  penal  justice,  in 
any  of  its  modes,  that  it  is  possible,  and  indeed  too  common,  by 
excess  of  severity,  to  sink  the  prisoner  heJow  the  capacity  of  being 
punished  at  all,  in  wearing  out  the  vigor  and  sensibility  of  body 
or  mind,  or  both."  "  Let  those  who,  without  due  reflection,  ap- 
prove of  the  utmost  harshness  and  severity  to  prisoners,  that  they 
may  be  made  to  feel  and  reflect,  consider  but  for  one  moment 
what  must  be  endured  in  a  State  Prison,  even  where  administered 
under  the  least  stringent  regulations ;  upon  the  total  seclusion  of 
the  prisoner  from  friends,  and  from  the  external  world,  and  from 
the  knowledge  of  what  is  passing  in  it,  for  months  and  years  ; 
upon  the  suppression  of  the  social  nature,  and  the  sufferings  of 
the  mind  even  in  the  most  hardened,  —  and  he  will  dismiss,  at 
once,  an  opinion  which  wars  with  the  superior  sentiments  of  hu- 
manity." 

The  second  error,  allied  to  the  first,  is,  that  this  hai*shness  and 
severity  are  necessary  to  prevent  prisoners  from  repeating  their 
offences,  or  committing  others,  and  being  brought  back  again  to 
confinement.  The  very  reverse  of  this  statement  is  the  truth. 
"  Words  of  kindness  have  subdued  hearts  in  Prison  that  were 
callous  to  bolts  and  bars."  "  The  only  hope  of  reforming  a  man 
in  Prison,  and  preventing  his  being  brought  back  again,  after  his 
discharge,  is  in  appealing  to  his  intellect  and  moral  nature  ;  in 
dispossessing  him  of  his  revenge,  if  he  have  any,  against  his 
prosecutors ;  in  reconciling  him  to  the  justice  of  his  sentence,  and 
to  the  labor  and  deprivations  to  which  he  is  subjected,  as  being 
necessaiy,  and  tending  to  his  own  good ;  in  treating  him  like  a 
man,  who,  though  fallen,  is  not  lost ;  in  raising  up  his  self-respect, 
enlightening  his  ignorance,  awakening  his  conscience  ;  in  making 
him  feel  that  he  is  not  an  outcast,  and  that  there  are  those  who 
'  care  for  his  soul,'  and  would  be  glad  to  see  him  renovated  and 
restored  to  his  place  in  society  ;  in  governing  him  with  firmness, 
but  with  as  little  severity  as  possible,  and  in  showing  him  as  much 
kindness,  in  every  respect,  as  discipline  will  permit."     With  all 


203 


these  means,  accompanied  by  religious  instruction,  "  the  expecta- 
tion of  reform  in  prison  should  not  be  too  high,  for  reformation  in 
the  shade,  where  there  is  no  temptation,  like  the  virtue  of  hermits 
and  monks,  is  endangered  by  exposure  to  the  light ;  and  too  fre- 
quently will  not  bear  the  contact  of  the  world  ; "  and,  further, 
"  although  in  those  who  have  committed  what  may  be  called 
crimes  of  excitement,  there  is  often  no  deep-rooted  depravity,  yet 
the  mass  of  convicts  are  those  who  are  so  broken  down  in  moral 
character,  as  to  be  past  recovery  by  any  agency  less  potent  than 
the  special  grace  of  God."  "  Hard  usage  will  make  a  man  very 
desirous  to  get  out  of  Prison,  but  it  will  not  prevent  him  from 
committing  the  crime  that  will  send  him  back.  And  here  lies  the 
error  of  the  advocates  of  severity.  Conscience  being  seared,  de- 
sire ascendant,  temptation  strong,  judgment  weak  and  easily  de- 
luded by  false  hopes  of  concealment  or  impunity,  the  old  offender 
is  very  apt  to  repeat  his  crime,  at  the  first  opportunity,  notwith- 
standing the  recollection  of  all  that  he  may  have  endured  in  the 
very  severest  form  of  imprisonment.  Where  the  greatest  severity 
is  practised  will  be  found  the  greatest  number  of  recommitments." 

The  prisoners  now  committed  here,  possess  as  fair  natural 
abilities  as  the  average  of  the  community  ;  most  of  them  can  read 
and  write.  A  large  majority  of  the  convicts  were  addicted  to  the 
use  of  ardent  spirit.  All  the  cases  of  murder,  —  three  in  number, 
—  and  also  all  the  cases  of  manslaughter,  were  instigated  by 
"  the  demon  of  the  distillery." 

Of  the  ffty-nine  prisoners  committed  here,  three  have  been 
committed  a  second  time,  but  none  a  third. 

As  appears  by  the  physician's  report,  the  general  state  of 
health  in  the  Prison  has  been  good  for  the  year.  One  cause  of 
the  disproportionate  tendency  to  affections  of  the  lungs  in  inmates 
of  State  Prisons,  is  found  in  the  general  disuse  of  the  voice,  and 
consequent  debilitation  of  the  lungs,  through  the  indispensable  rule 
of  continued  silence.  Reading  aloud,  rehearsing  and  singing  in 
their  cells,  should  be  encouraged  among  prisoners,  as  a  means  of 
counteracting  this  evil. 

There  are  some  other  topics,  connected  with  those  already  ad- 
verted to,  which  time  and  the  space  now  occupied  will  require  me 
to  defer  to  some  other  opportunity. 

All  which  is  respectfully  submitted,  by 

THO'S.  CLEVELAND,  M.  D., 
Warden  of  the  Rhode  Island  State  Prison. 

Peovidence,  October  30,  1844. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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